An Ancaster, Ont., man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails briefly returned to court Friday morning.
Karim Baratov wore black jeans and a black t-shirt at Hamilton’s John Sopinka Courthouse as lawyers set a date of June 16 to determine when his extradition hearing will take place.
The 22 year old was arrested under the Extradition Act in March.
U.S. authorities accuse him of assisting three Russian nationals in the hack of Yahoo email accounts in 2014.
Baratov is alleged to have hacked 80 accounts in the cyberattack, which saw an estimated 500 million accounts compromised.
He was denied bail last month. Ontario Superior Court Justice Alan Whitten said that Baratov is too much of a flight risk given his easy access to money and his ability to ply his alleged trade from anywhere in the world.
Whitten also said he didn’t believe Baratov’s parents would make good supervisors because they had turned a blind eye to his alleged activities while he lived under their roof.
READ MORE: Who is Karim Baratov? 22-year-old Canadian among 4 charged in massive Yahoo hack
Defence lawyers had argued the allegations against their client were inflated and argued the young man was neither as rich nor as well-connected as he had been portrayed.
His lawyer, Amedeo DiCarlo, will appeal the bail decision in court on June 5.
DiCarlo also suggested to reporters outside of the courthouse that extradition proceedings are taking longer because of U.S. president Donald Trump’s recent decision to fire FBI director James Comey.
DiCarlo said American officials and the RCMP have still not provided disclosure on the allegations against his client.
He said his client is doing well in the meantime.
“He’s pretty calm…he’s pretty much bored,” DiCarlo said outside court. “He wants to be out, he wants to be in the community.”
If convicted of the charges he faces in the U.S., Baratov could get up to 20 years in prison.
A previous version of this story said the extradition hearing would take place on June 16. In fact, the date for the hearing will be set by that date.
With files from the Canadian Press
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