A lawyer for the internet businessman Kim Dotcom says his client can't get a fair hearing if the American authorities won't hand over copies of data on his computer drives.
Kim Dotcom. Photo: AAP
Paul Davison told the Auckland District Court Mr Dotcom's computers were highly relevant to the charges he was facing.
He asked the court to order the police to provide copies of the 18 hard drives ahead of an extradition hearing in July.
Mr Davison said the High Court had ordered the police to release copies of the computers on condition Mr Dotcom provide the codes to access encrypted files.
Mr Davison said Mr Dotcom needed access to his computers in order to access a file to unlock the encrypted information but he could not get lawyers for the police to agree on how best to do this.
Liberty at stake
Earlier, Mr Davison said the court must ensure parties could prepare for their case and his client could lose his liberty after the extradition hearing.
Dotcom's legal team had been busy making requests under the Official Information Act.
Mr Davison previously told the court that a request to the Department of Corrections showed that while Mr Dotcom and his associates were held at Mt Eden Prison, Mr Dotcom made 44 phone calls, 13 of which were monitored by Corrections staff.
Mr Davison said his understanding was that Corrections could monitor calls of prisoners to keep the peace in prison and ensure no one was planning an escape or crimes on the outside.
He said to suggest Dotcom was doing any of that was fanciful.
Mr Davison alleged Corrections had passed the information to Police and that constituted an abuse of process.
Mr Dotcom had also gone to the Minister of Justice Judith Collins to seek the extradition request from the United States.
Mr Davison said the Minister was clearly involved in the extradition process and he needed the information to prepare Mr Dotcom's case.
The court has been told how the New Zealand Police had 18 hard drives cloned. The FBI have taken them from NZ unlawfully.
Lawyers for the US said the District Court was being asked to over-rule the Supreme Court.