It looks as if Kim DotCom, the founder of Megaupload, is having his first big break in a while: a high New Zealand judge found DotCom’s search warrant illegal. Why? According to a high court, the search warrants used against him were “general warrants” and aren’t valid in this type of case.
Another thing that’s working out in DotCom’s favor is that all hard drive clones sent to the United States government must be deleted. This is because they were never supposed to leave the country of New Zealand where the trial is currently taking place. Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann stated:
…the release of cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary to the February 16 direction under section 49 (2) of the MACMA [Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act] that the items seized were to remain in custody and control of the Commissioner of Police. This dealing with the cloned hard drives was therefore in breach of s49(3) of the MACMA.
DotCom’s possessions, which are deemed “not relevant”, will be returned to him and won’t be provided to the United States. And while this all sounds good for DotCom, the extradition hearing is still going forth, so he won’t be walking away anytime soon.
Image Credit: CNET
Source: TorrentFreak
