Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

Accused Yahoo hacker to bypass extradition hearing, go straight to U.S.

Aug 12, 2017 | 9:30 AM

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.

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.

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.