Another delay in Kim Dotcom extradition trial in New Zealand

The New Zealand judge in charge of the extradition trial of Kim Dotcom, founder of the nowclosed internet portal Megaupload, and three of his associates decided Friday to halt proceedings to analyze the petition by the accused to suspend the trial.

Dotcom and former Megaupload executives, Bram van der Kolk, Mathias Ortmann and Finn Batato, are facing trial to extradite them from New Zealand to the U.S. on 13 charges related to internet piracy, organized crime and money laundering.

Crown lawyer Christine Gordon, who is also representing the U.S. government, finished submitting all proof and arguments for the extradition on Thursday.

On Friday, the defense team asked for a review of their petitions to suspend the process before they argued against the extradition.

Finally, Judge Nevin Dawson said three petitions for suspension will be analyzed before the proceedings continue, which supposes another delay in the trial, according to local NZN agency.

The extradition trial has been postponed ten times since Dotcom and his associates were arrested in January 2012 from their rented mansion in the outskirts of Auckland, after which Megaupload was shut down, their accounts frozen and their property confiscated.

The operation was part of an extensive international operation led by the FBI.

Until now, of the seven members of Megaupload, its Estonian programmer Andrus Nomm the only one to have been prosecuted.

He was sentenced to a little over a year in prison in the U.S. after he pleaded guilty to copyright infringement.