A court has turned down an appeal of a Maltese man who is resisting extradition to the United States, where he is wanted by the FBI for allegedly selling malware on the dark web.

Daniel John Meli had appealed his extradition to the US after previously having consented. 

Mr Justice Neville Camilleri turned down the appeal and confirmed the original judgment, ordering that he be taken into custody ahead of his extradition. He will be extradited unless he takes his case to a higher court within 15 days to claim a breach of human rights.

Relatives hugged him silently inside the courtroom as he was escorted out.

Meli, 27, of Żabbar was arrested on February 7 and arraigned on February 9, after US prosecutors accused him of selling malware products, including the Pegasus remote access trojan (RAT) to cybercriminals.

Initially, Meli consented to be extradited to face the charges but had a change of heart after he got new lawyers, filing an appeal to overturn the extradition order. 

His lawyers argued that while the first court had been satisfied that the man had consented to the extradition of his own volition, they alleged that it had failed to ensure that he had fully understood what he was consenting to, namely being put on a plane to the US to face hefty charges that could land him up to 40-years in prison far away from home, if found guilty.

Meli, they argued, has a documented history of mental health issues, takes regular medication to treat these issues and was previously admitted to both Mater Dei and Mount Carmel hospitals. With this context, the court should have assured that Meli was in a sound enough state to understand what was being asked of him when he consented to the extradition. They cast doubt on whether this could truly be considered voluntary in such circumstances.

Meli’s legal team also invoked the principle of territoriality, arguing that the allegations made against him indicated that if the alleged crimes had occurred, they had happened in Malta and by a Maltese citizen. Therefore, if the Maltese state found the evidence brought to it by the FBI to be credible and compelling, it had an obligation to investigate and charge the man for these alleged crimes in Malta before he could ever be extradited to face these charges overseas.

Judge Camilleri, presiding over the Court of Appeal, ruled that case records clearly showed that Meli had been told the consequences of his consent to be extradited and that he had agreed to the extradition. It was also clear that he agreed to be extracted to solely face the charges listed in the extradition request.

The judge also added that, just because Malta had jurisdiction over a potential offence, this did not mean that another country did not.

What is he wanted for?

American authorities suspect Meli has been selling malware online since “at least 2012”, but started building the case against him in February 2022, when he allegedly sold the software to an undercover FBI operative for $180 in Bitcoin.

He is now facing charges of conspiracy, obtaining unauthorised access to protected computers to obtain information, illegally selling an interception device, and illegally advertising an interception device. Each of these charges carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

The charge of causing unauthorised damage to protected computers provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Europol were among a number of international police forces to have worked together on Meli’s arrest.

Another man, Prince Onyeoziri Odinakachi, 31, was arrested in Nigeria earlier this month for allegedly having provided customer support to those who purchased and made use of the malware.

Lawyers Marion Camilleri and Jacob Magri represented Meli in court. Attorney General lawyer Sean Xerri de Caro prosecuted.