An appellate court in New Zealand has upheld a lower court’s 2015 decision that Kim Dotcom and his co-defendants should be extradited to the United States to face criminal copyright-related charges involving his former website, Megaupload.

In a ruling issued Monday afternoon local time (late Sunday night, Eastern Standard Time), Justice Murray Gilbert of the High Court of New Zealand ruled that while he agreed with one of Dotcom’s attorneys’ primary arguments—"that online communication of copyright protected works to the public is not a criminal offence in New Zealand"—the judge noted that nevertheless, Dotcom and his co-defendants remain eligible for extradition based on other elements in the case.

"Wilful infringement of copyright can properly be characterised as a dishonest act," Justice Gilbert wrote. "Such infringement deprives the copyright holder of something to which it may be entitled."

"The conduct alleged in count 2 therefore constitutes the offence of conspiracy to defraud in terms of art II.16," he concluded, referring to a particular section of the extradition treaty between New Zealand and the United States that stipulates under what formal criminal allegations extradition "shall be granted."

However, it will likely be years before the case is fully resolved. In a statement published shortly after the ruling, Ron Mansfield, Dotcom’s top New Zealand lawyer, indicated that the case would be appealed to another court, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand. The case potentially could be appealed one step further, to the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

After the High Court ruling, on Twitter, Dotcom trumpeted Justice Gilbert’s concession, proclaiming that his side had "won," and compared New Zealand’s legal system to "Sharia law."

Extradition Judgement in a nutshell: We won but we lost anyway ⚖️🚽 — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 20, 2017

It's a political case.

It's a political judgement.

I told you I can't be extradited for Copyright and I was right.

What is this? Sharia law? — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 20, 2017

In responding to a few questions from Ars sent via Twitter DM, Dotcom called the ruling "a joke."

"We won the main argument that Online copyright infringement is not a crime in NZ and therefore not extraditable," he wrote. "The judge had to accept our evidence. There was no wiggling room for him. Instead he hacked the law and allowed extradition under a fraud statute despite the fact that copyright isn't fraud as the US Supreme Court ruled."

He continued: "But I'm now more confident than ever that we will win. We have won the biggest legal argument in my case and the fraud extraction theory will fail the test in front of [five] Court of Appeal judges. If they go along with this it would mean that NZ is without any copyright Law and all safe harbors for ISPs are illusory."

"NZ govt is corrupt to the core"

Dotcom and his legal team have fought tenaciously since 2012, delaying his extradition hearings several times. More than five years ago, New Zealand authorities, acting on the orders of American prosecutors—swept in to arrest him and conduct a raid, replete with two police helicopters, on the Dotcom mansion. The operation was conducted the same day that an American criminal complaint was unsealed against Dotcom and his colleagues.

Beginning in 2012, American authorities alleged that the "Mega Conspiracy… generated more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and caused more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners." For his part, Dotcom has long maintained that Megaupload was no different from any other cloud storage service, like Google or Dropbox, and that he made good faith efforts to remove infringing content.

Under the terms of the 1970 extradition treaty between New Zealand and the United States, neither country is required to send its own citizens abroad to face criminal charges, "but the executive authority of each shall have the power to deliver them up, if, in its discretion, it be deemed proper to do so."

Dotcom, a Finnish and German dual citizen, has lived in New Zealand for many years and became a permanent resident under the country's " Investor Plus " program. He told Ars that he became eligible for citizenship at the end of 2016 and is currently pursuing his citizenship so that he can run for a seat in parliament.

"I'm filing for citizenship so that I can personally get involved politically in NZ," he wrote over Twitter DM. "The NZ govt is corrupt to the core and I'd like to educate people about that and provide them with an alternative, personally."

He claimed that if his citizenship is granted, "it won't make a difference in my case," explaining, "because it is a political case."

Ars asked Dotcom to elaborate further, inquiring specifically: "Meaning what? That you don’t think your citizenship will be granted? That you don’t think that even if you’re made a citizen, the NZ govt won’t shield you from extradition?"

Dotcom replied: "Both."