Kim Dotcom and his fellow Megaupload co-accused have again sought to delay their extradition fight with the US, claiming natural justice has been denied as they're unable to pay for expert witnesses outside New Zealand.
The appeal is the latest in a long-running court battle between Dotcom and his co-accused with the Crown and US federal government, which has been seeking to extradite them where they face charges of conspiracy to operate websites used to illegally distribute copyrighted material via Megaupload.
Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were charged by the US in 2012, with their assets, mostly in Hong Kong and New Zealand, confiscated by US authorities.
In the Court of Appeal, appearing before Justices John Wild, John Fogarty and Jillian Mallon, the legal counsel for van der Kolk, Grant Illingworth QC, said while the US allowed the confiscated funds to pay for New Zealand legal resources, they could not spend it on expert witnesses outside the country.
"The issue at heart of this appeal is primarily of natural justice," Illingworth said. "The US asserts it has confiscated property and can enforce that worldwide", effectively preventing the Megaupload accused to defend themselves with expert witnesses from outside New Zealand.