Megaupload founder demands his servers back

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kim "Dotcom" Schmitz, the German-born founder of Megaupload, has demanded that his hard drives and 135 computers are returned to him so he can use the data for his defense, Fudzilla reports.

He has told the court he needs all the ammunition he can get to wage his legal wars both in the U.S. and in his home country of New Zealand. Dotcom and his legal team visited the High Court in Auckland, New Zealand, to request a judicial review of the general legality of the search warrants police used to raid his mansion, and also demanded access to the data stored on his computers and hard drives that were confiscated during the raid.

He told the court he was concerns that the United States will have New Zealand take all the data and all the hard drives that have been confiscated and remove them from the New Zealand jurisdiction. This will mean that the Kiwi judges cannot exercise Kiwi values in fairness and due process, and bring it all over to the United States so that it cannot be used in the extradition hearing.

Dotcom's other lawyer, Paul Davison, argued that his client needs the data for a few reasons: to mount a "proper defense" case, to fight possibly being extradited to the U.S., and also to show that "excessive police action" was used during the raid. Dotcom could prove this in court because the entire raid was recorded by CCTV data, which is stored on Dotcom's confiscated computers.

Judge Helen Winkelmann has yet to rule if the Megaupload founder can access his personal data, and whether or not the search warrants and the police action was legal.