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<h1 itemprop="name headline">Kim Dotcom: New Zealand to
investigate unlawful spying</h1>
<p itemprop="description" id="stand-first"
class="stand-first-alone" data-component="comp : r2 : Article
: standfirst_cta">PM orders inquiry into actions of government
agents in lead-up to arrest of Megaupload founder, who is
fighting US extradition</p>
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<ul class="article-attributes trackable-component b4"
data-component="comp: r2: Byline">
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<div class="contributor-full"> Reuters in Wellington </div>
</li>
<li class="publication"> <a itemprop="publisher"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">guardian.co.uk</a>, <time
itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2012-09-24T09:57BST"
pubdate="">Monday 24 September 2012 09.57 BST</time> </li>
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<div id="main-content-picture" itemscope="" itemprop="image"
itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <img
src="cid:part2.09030603.00030202@gmail.com" alt="Megaupload
founder Dotcom at court in Wellington" itemprop="contentUrl
representativeOfPage" height="276" width="460">
<div class="caption" itemprop="caption">Megaupload founder Kim
Dotcom outside the New Zealand court of appeals in
Wellington. Photograph: Mark Coote/Reuters</div>
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<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/newzealand"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on New Zealand">New
Zealand</a>'s prime minister, John Key, has launched a
inquiry into "unlawful" spying by government agents leading
to the arrest of <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/megaupload"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Megaupload">Megaupload</a>
founder <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/kim-dotcom"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Kim Dotcom">Kim Dotcom</a>,
who is fighting extradition to the US where he faces charges
of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Internet">internet</a>
piracy and breaking copyright laws.</p>
<p>The investigation may deal another blow to the US case
after a New Zealand court ruled in June that search warrants
used in the raid on Dotcom's home earlier this year,
requested by the FBI, were illegal.</p>
<p>Key has asked the government's intelligence and security
division to investigate "circumstances of unlawful
interception of communications of certain individuals by the
government communications security bureau", his office said
in a statement on Monday.</p>
<p>Key's spokesman would not comment on whether the "certain
individuals" referred to Dotcom, his three colleagues also
arrested and facing US charges, or all of them.</p>
<p>"The bureau had acquired communications in some instances
without statutory authority," Key's statement said.</p>
<p>New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom and his colleagues
at his rented country estate near Auckland in January,
confiscating computers and hard drives, works of art, and
cars.</p>
<p>The FBI accuses the flamboyant Dotcom, a 38-year-old German
national also known as Kim Schmitz, of leading a group that
netted $175m (£100m) since 2005 by copying and distributing
music, films and other copyrighted content without
authorisation.</p>
<p>"I welcome the inquiry by [Key] into unlawful acts by the
GCSB," Dotcom said on his Twitter account.</p>
<p>Dotcom maintains that the Megaupload site was no more than
an online storage facility, and has accused Hollywood of
lobbying the US government to vilify him.</p>
<p>The raid and evidence seizure has already been ruled
illegal and a court has ruled that Dotcom should be allowed
to see the evidence on which the extradition hearing will be
based.</p>
<p>US authorities have appealed against that ruling, and a
decision is pending.</p>
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