A New Zealand court ruled last week that search warrants used to raid the mansion of Megaupload founder, Kim Dotcom, were illegal.
New Zealand High Court Judge Justice Helen Winkelmann also ruled that the FBI copying data from Kim Dotcom’s computer and taking it outside the country were also illegal.
Winkelmann ruled that the offence was not adequately described in the search warrants.
"The warrants did not adequately describe the offences to which they related," said Winkelmann. "Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid."
Crown lawyers have told the court that affidavits from police need to be taken about the raid of Dotcom’s property.
Kim Dotcom has also requested that irrelevant material, like his computers, be returned. The police took over 100 hundred computers during the raid including the one that operates Dotcom’s mansion security system.
Dotcom’s lawyer, Paul Davison QC, says he believes evidence given from police will be "controversial" to the Megaupload founder.
Kim Dotcom is currently on bail in New Zealand currently fighting extradition from New Zealand to the United States.
The U.S. government is seeking their extradition on charges of racketeering, money laundering and copyright infringement.
Megaupload Founder, Kim Dotcom, was arrested in January after authorities, which included the FBI, shut down Megaupload for online piracy.
U.S prosecutors accused the site of inflicting copyright holders with losses over $500m, while the company generated $175m in revenues.
The file hosting service, Megaupload.com, asked for U.S. criminal charges against the company to be dismissed in June this year, arguing that the U.S. has no jurisdiction over the Hong Kong based service.
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