Dotcom loses another

Stuff reports:

Embattled internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom’s latest attempt to block his extradition to the United States has failed.

Dotcom challenged the legality of the justice minister’s decision to surrender him to the US through a judicial review heard earlier this year.

He also challenged the police commissioner’s decision not to lay charges against him in New Zealand, arguing it was politically motivated.

In a decision out today, the High Court declined Dotcom’s application for review and found neither of these arguments stood up.

This is no surprise. Dotcom’s conspiracy theories involving Joe Biden and Barack Obama are no substitute for facts.

We are getting close to the end. There is no right of appeal for a judicial review. Dotcom will ask the Court of Appeal to allow an appeal, but they could well decline that. Then he will no doubt ask the Supreme Court to review that decision. But both these hearings will be on whether there are grounds for an appeal, not actually a substantive hearing on the decision. So they can be dealt with relatively quickly.

If I had to guess I’d say a Court of Appeal decision in 2026 and a Supreme Court decision the same year. Then I’d expect a couple more goes at getting the Supreme Court to engage, so probably extradition in 2027.