A New Zealand court judge on Wednesday affirmed that it is likely that Kim Dotcom and his family have been and continue to be under surveillance.

However, Judge N.R. Dawson stopped short of granting Dotcom’s request to compel American authorities to provide an affidavit “stating in unequivocal terms” whether the US has conducted surveillance against him since the January 20, 2012 raid on his property. The judge added that Dotcom needs to provide further evidence that surveillance is definitely being carried out by the US "before this Application could succeed."

Judge Dawson wrote (PDF):

In conclusion it can only be shown that interception/surveillance activities concerning Mr. Dotcom and his family are likely to have occurred but there is no direct evidence that the USA, its agencies or agents are involved. There is no evidence that Mr. Dotcom and his fellow respondents will not therefore be afforded a fair and just extradition hearing. This does not amount to a case whereby this Court should exercise its power to grant this application and the application is denied.

The Megaupload founder, who continues to fight his extradition from New Zealand to the US to face criminal charges, has been a known target of domestic surveillance.

As Ars reported in March 2013, a New Zealand appeals court ruled (PDF) that Kim Dotcom has the right to sue the government of New Zealand for illegal surveillance. As we reported further last year, the New Zealand government admitted after the fact that Dotcom should not have been subjected to government surveillance due to his having obtained permanent resident status.

Some, including Dotcom himself, have argued that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) infrastructure was turned toward Kim Dotcom and his family and that this data was then shared with their New Zealand counterparts, as they are “Five Eyes” allies. In addition to challenging his extradition, Dotcom also filed a civil lawsuit in September 2013 asking for $7 million as a result of the illegal spying.

Dotcom’s US-based attorney, Ira Rothken, denounced this alleged tactic.

“We believe the NSA spy network is currently invading the attorney client privilege of foreign residents like Kim Dotcom fighting extradition to the United States,” Rothken told Ars. “The US ought to be required to confirm they honor the attorney client privilege of all persons they are seeking to extradite globally or risk the cases being dismissed in the interest of justice.”

“Hello. Hellooo. What the hell is this?”

In Dotcom’s most recent court filing, he argued that a phone call with his attorney William Akel appears to have been played back (likely erroneously) over the call.

As the judge summarized Dotcom's account in the decision:

Mr. Dotcom could hear himself like a recording playing back. Mr. Dotcom said “Willy, can you hear this? What’s going on?” Every word he was saying over the top of the playback was delayed by about a second and there was an echo of everything that he had said. He had no response from Mr. Akel and then the playback stopped at the same time as when Mr. Akel had previously gone mute about 15 seconds earlier. Mr. Dotcom could see from his iPhone display the call was still active. Mr. Dotcom kept saying the words “Hello. Hellooo. What the hell is this?" and those words were echoed back to him.

Dotcom told Ars on Wednesday that he is waiting for the testimony of another expert witness.

“The signal strength at our property is much higher than it should be. The closest cell tower is five kilometers away,” Dotcom told Ars. “We shouldn't have five bars' signal strength. The only logical explanation is stingray, which simulates a cell tower, makes your mobile connect to it because it's the strongest signal source, and then submits the call data of all cell phones in the area that connect to it to where they want it. We have the map of all signal towers and boosters in a 50 kilometer radius around our property, and we should not have the signal strength we currently have. It’s simply impossible.”

The German entrepreneur’s extradition hearing is scheduled for April 2014.