Kim Dotcom extradition trial delayed until 2013

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A New Zealand extradition trial for MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom won’t get underway until March 2013, The New Zealand Herald reported Tuesday morning.

Dotcom’s attorneys told the court that they had too many other legal proceedings on their plate thanks to an earlier judgement that the raid on their client’s mansion had been carried out illegally. On his Twitter account, however, Dotcom accused the U.S. government of engaging in “dirty delay tactics.”

“The actions by the [United States Department of Justice] clearly demonstrate that they don’t have a case and that this … was about killing Megaupload and creating a chilling effect to freeze the whole file-hosting sector,” Dotcom told Hollywood Reporter on Monday night. “They achieved that. I don’t think they are prepared for the wave that’s coming to them now.”

Before the delay was announced, prosecutors had previously said they did not have enough time to produce evidence ahead of an August extradition hearing. They later argued that Dotcom and his fellow defendants have no right to see the evidence against them during the extradition hearing because they were not to be tried in New Zealand.