WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who is fighting deportation from New Zealand to the United States on charges related to the file-sharing website Megaupload, has suffered a “severe stroke,” he says. 's post on the X account announced on Monday. .
“I have the best medical professionals helping me recover. I will be back as soon as possible. Please be patient and pray for my family and me,” the post said.
Dotcom's attorney, Ira Rosken, confirmed to the AP that the statement was accurate. Rosken did not say whether Dotcom or someone else wrote the post or provide further details.
News of his ill health comes amid the US government's long-running battle to extradite the Finnish-German billionaire from New Zealand to the US on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and extortion. .
in August, New Zealand The Minister of Justice announced that Dotcom should be extradited to the United States to stand trial, a ruling intended to end a 12-year legal battle. No handover date has been set, and Minister Paul Goldsmith said Dotcom would be given a “short period to consider and take advice” on the decision.
At the time, Rosken wrote to X that Dotcom intended to challenge the order in court through judicial review. The review requires judges to assess whether officials' decisions were made correctly.
Lawyers for Dotcom and others arrested argued that it was its users who chose to pirate the content, not the site's founders, which were founded in 2005. But prosecutors say the men were the architects of a massive criminal enterprise, which the Justice Department has described as the largest copyright criminal case in U.S. history.
