“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage,” he said.
Dotcom appeared to reveal the fact of his own extradition in a long post to X, formerly Twitter, sent on August 13.
Amidst talk of World War 3 and the “fake ‘rules-based order’”, Dotcom said that an “obedient US colony in the South Pacific [New Zealand] just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload”.
He maintained that he had no control of what Megaupload’s users decided to upload on the website and that copyright holders “were able to remove with direct delete access instantly and without question”.
Although significant, the signing of the extradition warrant is just another step in a process that is likely to take years longer.
Dotcom has always signalled seeking a judicial review of the extradition warrant, and to appeal any adverse outcome. If extradition goes ahead, it could be years from now.
Dotcom has been a feature of New Zealand public life almost since he arrived.
In 2012, his house, dubbed the “Dotcom Mansion” was raided by the Police Special Tactics Group as part of a worldwide FBI operation to take down Dotcom’s Megaupload file-sharing website which was claimed to be at the centre of a massive criminal copyright operation.
Dotcom and three others were arrested, but Dotcom was later given a settlement after he filed a damaged claim with the High Court over what was considered an “unreasonable” use of force.
In 2014, he funded the Internet party which later moved with Hone Harawira’s Mana party to form Internet-Mana. It contested the 2014 election, but despite considerable financial backing from Dotcom, failed to win more than 5% of the vote to enter Parliament. Harawira lost his seat in the election. Dotcom later said his own involvement with the party had “poisoned” its brand.