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Hearing into Dotcom police raid continues

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Hearing into Dotcom police raid continues

3News NZ

Kim Dotcom's Twitter and Facebook avatar

Kim Dotcom's Twitter and Facebook avatar

Members of the elite police Special Tactics Group (STG) have told a court about what happened when they found Kim Dotcom hiding in the safe room of his Coatesville mansion, north of Auckland.

A court hearing into the police raid on the home of the Megaupload founder and internet piracy accused in January will continue on Thursday.

The hearing at the High Court in Auckland follows on from a court ruling in late June that the search warrants used to carry out the raid in January were invalid.

Two members of the STG, who both have name suppression, gave evidence on Wednesday that no one punched or kicked Dotcom as he was pushed to the ground and arrested.

Dotcom was found sitting behind a pillar in the so-called safe room of the mansion.

The court was told that Dotcom failed to comply with instructions to raise his hands and was pushed to the ground and put in a spread-eagle position.

When Dotcom took the witness stand on Tuesday, he said he was punched and kicked by police.

The court was earlier shown police and CCTV footage of the raid on the mansion. Dotcom and his three co-accused, Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram Van der Kolk, face copyright, racketeering and money laundering charges in the US.

An extradition hearing is scheduled for March next year.

NZN

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Comments

4/09/2012 9:09:46 p.m.

dennis wrote:

Did we find out yet where the video link had its camera(s)? Wonder if there was a fly on the wall in the room?

11/08/2012 2:36:32 p.m.

dennis wrote:

What on earth have you got against this man? Your accusing him of being a "crim" and he has a clean slate. You're not accurate about the claims you make against the business. You infer he has a porn collection yet even if he does its got nothing to do with the price of fish in Hong Kong. From the way he has tolerated the attacks from the likes of you he is to be credited. The bit about wanting to access his data is perverse. Are you anything to do with one of the agencies under fire? There is just no plausible reason for these constant attacks. One has to feel a little sympathetic towards the officers who lied, because, after Kim dealt with John Banks these guys would be in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. But if they weren't men enough to take their chances and apologize they deserve what they deserve. Doug Graham is guilty of white-collar crime. Would you like to rough him up and put on a show for his wife as well. You are perverse

11/08/2012 8:22:06 a.m.

Mike wrote:

Crims the world over always complain about police. If they dont complain, they just aren't holding up their side!

Take any protest with complaints of police brutality, even with it on video and typically you see the protestor flailing about and at most fault with the police trying to minimise injuries.

Police tend to ask once, then help a crim to comply, and they will manhandle someone by applying force. I somewhat doubt anyone kicked or punched dotcom as I doubt he has the courage to stand up to police in the first place to try to attack police where they could justify 'self-defence hits'. If dotcom was kicked and punched, I expect he would have mentioned this at the time and in the days following, and demanded medical treatment to document it in January.

It seams something the police scouped up is important to dotcom, and I'm not meaning his porn collection! Now if he had a brain in his head he would have encrypted it, and 128 bit encryption is pretty standard. If he chose that, then, all this stall is doing is giving the US time to crack the encryption. ie if he hadn't faught the extradiction and demanded a quick trial, then the US would probably not have had time to crack 128 bit encryption before a trial.

This is the most highly funded stalling defence NZ has ever seen for an extradition. The requirements for extradition are low, only requiring a similar charge under NZ law to have a max 12+ months jail sentence, and not for us to have a trial in NZ to prove guilt first.

Here it seams the well financed defene is making it a show trial about everything but extradition in the hope extradition is forgotten.

10/08/2012 2:34:59 a.m.

dennis wrote:

Come on. Who can put their money where their mouth is. Make a comment that the elite STG didn't commit perjury. I've got none to support my side but I'll go into debt. There's a telltale word there: He was "pushed", not pulled to the ground. He doesn't exactly look like someone who will end-up spreadeagled by pushing. I don't care if 6 others back-up the evidence, my bet stands. If it turns out that perhaps he was hit accidentally I win, because the perjury remains

9/08/2012 2:30:25 p.m.

dennis wrote:

OK there's 2 of them so Kim must be lying. But, hang on, why would he do that after all this time? Lose his credibility. Risk everything. Millions of dollars and a billion-dollar business. And, didn't he complain of that 6 MONTHS AGO?? So, what was the outcome? Did Kim only complain to the media? You don't think he might have mentioned something to someone at North Shore police station? I heard that he tried to complain through an MP. Pity he tried one with such a poor memory. If Paul Temm was still around he could give Mr Davison a hand to get the truth (on oath) out of the 3. I actually believe Kim. He has far to much to lose to make-up petty lies. It helps his overall position in no way to make-up such a story. There is no reason to. On the other hand, the 2 do have a reason. If it happened they get sacked in disgrace of the uniform they wear