Internet mogul Kim Dotcom has lost his bid to avoid extradition to the United States.
Kim Dotcom at his extradition appeal at the High Court in Auckland in 2016. Photo: AFP
The Court of Appeal released its finding today, upholding the decision of the High Court and District Court.
Mr Dotcom and his three co-accused - Bram Van der Kolk, Matthias Ortmann and Finn Batato - are eligible for surrender on charges of money-laundering and copyright breaches related to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload.
The decision on extradition now rests with the Minister of Justice Andrew Little, according to the Extradition Act.
The court also ruled that evidence Mr Dotcom and his co-accused said they were prevented from calling would not have affected the decision to extradite.
"The evidence the appellants say the United States wrongfully prevented them from calling would not affect the question of whether there is sufficient evidence to make out a prima facie case."
Read the full decision here:
The court said an extradition hearing was not a trial on the merits of the case, and the evidence relied on by the United States "disclosed a clear prima facie case to support the allegations that the appellants conspired to, and did, breach copyright wilfully and on a massive scale for commercial gain".
In a tweet, Ira Rothken - Mr Dotcom's US-based lawyer - said they were disappointed by the decision, but would seek a review with the NZ Supreme Court.
We are disappointed with today’s Judgment by the NZ Court of Appeal in the @KimDotcom case. We have now been to three courts each with a different legal analysis - one of which thought that there was no copyright infringement at all. We will seek review with the NZ Supreme Court.
— Ira Rothken (@rothken) July 4, 2018
Immigration New Zealand has earlier said it has made a decision on whether Mr Dotcom should be deported, but it would not make a recommendation to the government until the court proceedings were finished.
In October, Mr Dotcom's bid to recover $US40 million of assets seized by the US government was rejected by the US Supreme Court.
