14 DAY TRIAL // The legal team of Artem Vaulin, the alleged KickassTorrents owner, will appeal the extradition ruling handed out by a Polish court last week.
According to TorrentFreak, Ira Rothken, Vaulin's lead counsel, claims the refusal of the Polish court to grant bail and the unprecedented allegations are a violation of human rights.
A Polish court decided that Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of KickassTorrents, can be extradited to the United States, a decision that was a big disappointment to the defense.
It seems that despite Rothken being his lead legal counsel, Vaulin was not allowed to meet with him up until now. The two were finally allowed to meet a few das ago.
"Artem is presumed innocent and the failure to provide him with bail is a novel copyright case on mere torrent files, which is an alleged non-violent crime, violates his human rights," Rothken said.
The lawyer added that his client cannot properly participate in his defense due to his incarceration. Rothken says that this is a complex Internet copyright case where, logically, he needs access to the Internet to assist his global legal team.
Attacking on multiple fronts
The case will be appealed in Poland, but the KickassTorrents' defense team is also hoping to win at the European Court of Human Rights.
The US is trying to get Vaulin over on its turf, mentioning over a billion dollars in alleged damage to the entertainment industries. The indictment suggests Vaulin is liable for the criminal infringement of millions of KickassTorrent users. Since each separate offense adds several years in prison, the total time to be spent in prison could reach millions of years, which is unprecedented.
The legal defense team hopes to win in Poland and at the European Court of Human Rights, but also to get the US case dismissed altogether.
"We are hopeful that the United States Court will promptly rule on the pending motion to dismiss the indictment. We believe the indictment is defective and the motion to dismiss will be granted. We also believe if the indictment is found defective then the US extradition request in Poland based on a defective and thus unreliable indictment should fail as a matter of law,” Rothken said.