(Image: file photo)
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom's extradition to the United States has been cleared by New Zealand's second-highest court.
The German-born tech mogul this year asked the New Zealand Court of Appeal to overturn a decision approving his extradition but his request was on Thursday morning turned down.
The Megaupload founder and his three co-accused -- Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk, and Finn Batato -- were arrested in 2012 in a dramatic police raid and charged with a series of copyright-related offences on behalf of authorities in the US over their roles in running the file-sharing website.
"The United States relied on a range of extradition pathways in seeking the extradition of the appellants. The court has confirmed all of these extradition pathways are available to the United States," a summary of the judgement said.
"An extradition hearing is not a trial on the merits, and the evidence relied on by the United States discloses a clear prima facie case to support the allegations that the appellants conspired to, and did, breach copyright wilfully and on a massive scale for commercial gain."
In an additional blow, the court also overturned a decision by the High Court that New Zealand's copyright laws could not be used for extradition.
The three judges rejected questions about misconduct by the United States in the case, saying it was "not of sufficient importance to warrant a further appeal".
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has led the case and claims Megaupload was a criminal conspiracy that earned the men $175 million. If extradited and found guilty in the US, the quartet could face decades in jail.
"We are disappointed with today's judgment by the NZ