The lawyer for a Canadian man accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails says his client will bypass the extradition hearing and go directly to the United States to face the charges.
The hearing for Karim Baratov, 22, was scheduled for next month.
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Baratov was arrested in Hamilton in March under the Extradition Act after U.S. authorities indicted him and three others – two of them allegedly officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service – for computer hacking, economic espionage and other crimes.
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After several months planning to fight the extradition, his lawyer Amedeo DiCarlo said in June that Baratov was considering bypassing his extradition hearing in an effort to speed up the legal process.
DiCarlo has previously said Baratov is getting bored behind bars – where he’s been since his arrest in March – and that he doesn’t want his client to spend more time than necessary in custody if it looks like he could be exonerated or spared incarceration in the U.S.
He has stressed that waiving the extradition hearing does not mean admitting guilt.