US authorities are pressuring New Zealand to speed up the extradition of Kim Dotcom and his colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato, with lawyers requesting priority hearing of his appeal in Auckland today.
The US efforts to extradite Dotcom extend back to 2012 following the infamous raid on his mansion. The defendants charged with copyright infringement, money-laundering and racketeering related to their file-sharing website Megaupload.
A date has been set for the hearing of the appeal in August, in order for a pre-Christmas ruling. However the Dotcom legal team, lead by barrister Ron Mansfield, are expecting the case will go to the Supreme Court. Christine Gordon QC represents the US interests.
Finn Batato
Image: Motherboard.vice.com
The court heard Batato, who is representing himself, had legal aid refused for his extradition hearing and could still not afford a lawyer and has yet to file an appeal. He has been given until the end of the week to do so, failing which his appeal will be deemed to have been abandoned.
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