Bail for two in Dotcom drama
Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload associates Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato were this afternoon granted bail after a judge decided neither posed serious flight risk.
Late submissions means Mathias Ortmann’s bail application was adjourned to continue in North Shore district court on Friday afternoon.
Judge David McNaughton said Mr van der Kolk, a Dutch citizen who lives in Orakei, Auckland, should be granted bail because presented the least flight risk.
The judge said the risk of flight was minimal and such risk that remained could be met by the imposition of strict bail conditions including electronic monitoring, the judge said.
Mr van der Kolk is the lead programmer for Mega Upload, owner of Mega Upload.com – the main website used to facilitate the operation of the conspiracy alleged by the United States government.
Mr Batato, a German citizen and chief marketing and sales officer for Mega Media and Mega Upload, was also considered a low flight risk which could be met by appropriate bail conditions.
All bail applications were opposed by the Crown law office, on behalf of US authorities – essentially the FBI.
Queen’s counsel Paul Davison said no date had yet been set for a bail appeal by Mr Dotcom, regarded a serious flight risk, who remains in custody after being refused bail on Wednesday.
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Comments and questions3
US government and its agencies can only bully Weak and Dependent countries such as NZ.
Majority of softwares around the developing countries particularly in Asia are pirated. High quality of illegally copied and distributed DVD of American movies are sold in the shops and even by the sidewalks there for less than NZ$ 2. Lots of skilled hackers are in Asia who even hacked the US corporates.
Then why on earth US cannot demand the arrest of those people? Simply because those countries are strong and we are NOT. They can give US, this self-declared international police, the mid-finger salute that they deserve and we cannot. Full stop!
yawn some fat kraut gets busted and its news for weeks on end... could be worse mind you , at least Sonny Bill Williams new shag wasn't front page news on the NBR
If these chaps had been caught for insider trading then by all means arrest them. What they have been arrested for is copyright? The copying of films, (just as Sione) and music has been rife for many years, even in the 70’s you were able to buy pirated tapes in Asia for less than 10% of the price in the USA. “Rolex” watches etc in Bangkok, heck I purchased 10 “Polo” dress shirts in Bangkok for US$5 each when the price in the USA was US$80. Sites such as Mega are used daily by those wishing to transfer large files, which email cannot handle. Copyright: They say the actors don’t want this happening as it hurts their earnings, goodness $20m for a film and then no trail fee, poor little didums! The USA legal beagles must prove beyond a shadow of doubt that these guys have been abusing copyright and thereby breaking NZ law. Until then these chaps should be allowed to stay in NZ. I have not seen any charges that these chaps have broken a NZ law
Question: Is NZ being reimbursed for all the costs here?. So far the costs will be in the upper thousands, 30 odd police, helicopters, vehicles, judges costs and court costs, jail costs etc, etc.
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