Megaupload Search Warrant Deemed Legal In Kim Dotcom Arrest

The legal saga of Megaupload and its founder Kim Dotcom has been going on for a long time now. Earlier in the case, the warrant that was used to arrest Dotcom at his New Zealand mansion was ruled illegal. Some video from that raid on the Dotcom mansion was made available back in 2012. The legality of that warrant has still been fought over to this day.

A court in New Zealand has now ruled that the warrant used to arrest Dotcom was legal. The ruling is said to deal a significant blow to Dotcom and his attempts to prevent extradition to the US to stand trial for alleged copyright infringement. The US government had requested that the New Zealand government appeal the 2012 ruling that deemed that warrant illegal, and that appeal was successful this week.

The ruling on the warrant was handed down Wednesday, overturned the previous High Court ruling that the search warrant was vague, and allowed the seizure of material that had nothing to do with the charges against Dotcom.

The appeals court ruled that "a reasonable reader" of the search warrant would have understood what the warrant related to. The court also ruled that there was no "disconnect" between what was believed to be at the property and what the police could take. The appeals court did rule that the prosecutors of the case hadn't been authorized to send cloned versions of the hard drives seized to the US. The ruling could make things difficult at the extradition trial set for July.

SOURCE: Reuters