A Spanish court has authorized the extradition to the United States of a Briton suspected of hacking celebrities’ Twitter accounts.
Police arrested Liverpool’s Joseph James O’Connor in July 2021 in the southern city of Estepona.
He is facing multiple charges in connection with the July 2020 hack of more than 130 accounts, including those of US President Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
The accounts of Bill Gates, Kanye West and Elon Musk were also hit.
A court statement said the conditions were met for Mr O’Connor to be handed over to US authorities on 14 counts, including alleged crimes of disclosing secrets, membership of a criminal gang, illegal access to computer systems, Internet fraud, money laundering and blackmail .
He is wanted by courts in the Northern District of California and the Southern District of New York.
“Plugwalk Joe”
US officials claim Mr O’Connor hijacked the Twitter accounts and then asked their followers to send bitcoin to an account and promised to double their funds.
Spain’s National Court of Justice said he is also suspected of hacking the Snapchat account of an unnamed public figure and then threatening to post nude pictures of the person unless he was financially compensated.
Mr O’Connor is also wanted on several alleged counts of “swatting” – malicious calls to emergency services aimed at falsely misleading police to visit various locations.
The “necessary conditions” have been met for Spain to agree to a US extradition request for the 23-year-old, also known by the pseudonym Plugwalk Joe.
The court dismissed the arguments of Mr O’Connor’s lawyers that he should be tried in Spain because the servers he used were located there.
Spain’s cabinet must approve the extradition, although it usually abides by the court’s decisions.
Mr. O’Connor can appeal the extradition.
Before his arrest, he told the New York Times: “I don’t care – they can come and arrest me.
“I would laugh at her. I didn’t do anything.”
A Florida teenager accused of masterminding the attacks was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention by a US court in a plea deal in 2021.
Graham Ivan Clark was only 17 when he was charged and his case was referred to a Florida state court because of his juvenile status.
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