A notorious Romanian computer hacker who released some of Hillary Clinton's private emails is facing extradition to the United States of America.

Known online as 'Guccifer,' Marcel Lehel, 42, lost his legal case in his home country after Romania's top court of appeal sanctioned a request by the U.S. to extradite him.

The ruling is final and the period of extradition could not exceed 18 months.

Known online as 'Guccifer,' Marcel Lehel, 42, (second from right) lost his legal case in his home country after Romania's top court of appeal sanctioned a request by the U.S. to extradite him

The hacker Guccifer shot to fame in 2013 after he claimed responsibility for hacking into George W. Bush family emails and posted artwork by the former president (right)

In 2011, the unemployed Romanian taxi driver hacked the emails of George Bush and Colin Powell as well as other well-known figures, including the former head of the Romanian intelligence agency.

Lehel accessed and published private family photos from George Bush, including self portraits of Bush who appeared to be in a bathtub.

Lehel was sentenced by a Romanian court to four years injail in 2014 for illegally accessing email accounts of publicfigures 'with the aim of getting ... confidential data' and isserving another three-year term for other offences.

That case focused only on Lehel's activities in Romania,prosecutors have said. His victims included former secretservice chief George Maior and other Romanian officials.

The private email account of Hillary Clinton was targeted by the Romanian hacker, who used to work as a paint salesman

Guccifer also distributed emails exchanged by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (pictured) and a Romanian member of the European Parliament, prompting Powell to deny the two had had an affair

Lehel uploaded documents to a U.S. website, The Smoking Gun, saying there he had used methods including guessing the answersto security questions to access accounts at Facebook,Comcast Corp, AOL Inc and other companies.

The hacker Guccifer shot to fame in 2013 after he claimedresponsibility for hacking into George W. Bush family emails andposted artwork by the former president.

He also distributed emails exchanged by former U.S.Secretary of State Colin Powell and Corina Cretu, a Romanianmember of the European Parliament, prompting Powell to deny thetwo had had an affair.

He was sentenced in 2014 to seven years in Romania for intercepting the private correspondence of Romanian officials.

The U.S. charged him with online fraud and began judicial proceedings against him.

The FBI later launched a program to train 600 Romanian law enforcement officers on fighting cybercrime.