Kim Dotcom wins access to seized property from 2012 raid
The Megaupload founder wins his case after a court finds that the warrants used to raid his home were illegal.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has won another one.
A New Zealand court on Friday ruled that the warrants used by law enforcement officials to raid Dotcom's home in 2012 were illegal. Therefore, the court said, police are required to provide copies of all relevant evidence in the prosecution of Dotcom for alleged piracy. Any material that is deemed by the court not to be relevant must be returned to Dotcom.
Until now, Dotcom's defense attorneys did not have access to the seized evidence. According to Reuters, which earlier reported on the story, the attorneys asserted that there were at a disadvantage because they didn't have access to all of the materials that prosecutors did.
The U.S. is trying to extradite Dotcom to its shores to charge him for operating Megaupload -- a site the government claims committed wide-scale piracy. Dotcom has been able to sidestep those extradition requests, though a hearing on the matter is scheduled for August.
According to a report from January 2012, $42 million in assets were seized from Megaupload and Kim Dotcom. It's not clear how much of that will be returned to him.