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New Zealand court says FBI doesn’t have to share all Mega evidence

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 1 March 2013

An appeals court in New Zealand has overturned an earlier ruling that ordered American prosecutors in the MegaUpload case to share all of their evidence with Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz, the founder of the controversial file-transfer service, who the Americans are trying to extradite to face charges of racketeering, money laundering and copyright infringement.

As previously reported, an earlier court ruling said that Dotcom should have access to all the evidence compiled by the FBI in relation to the case so his legal team can properly fight the extradition application in court. But appeal judges have said that while the US government has a duty of “candour and good faith” in the way it handles its extradition bid, a pre-trial summary of the evidence the Americans will present as part of their application would suffice.

Responding to the ruling via Twitter Dotcom said this morning: “Am I disappointed about the ruling today? YES. Do ‘good faith’ and ‘US government’ go together? NO. Will I sleep like an innocent baby tonight? YES”. Meanwhile his legal reps said they were considering taking the matter to New Zealand’s Supreme Court.

Dotcom’s extradition hearing has been much delayed, but should take place later this year. He and three other Mega execs were arrested in New Zealand as the US moved to shut down MegaUpload in January 2012. Dotcom has since launched a replacement service called Mega while fighting legal battles on various fronts with regards the original MegaUpload business.

As previously reported, in a separate legal squabble, Mega’s people are trying to get evidence amassed against Dotcom et al by New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau. A court said those files should be shared after it emerged the GCSB had been spying on the Mega execs without the required warrants, though the security agency is trying to fight that ruling.