Anthony Piovesan
Spain will extradite a baby-faced Brit wanted by the United States over a Twitter hack which compromised the accounts of president Joe Biden and former leader Barack Obama.
Spain’s High Court on Friday agreed to the US’ request to extradite British citizen Joseph James O’Connor for the scandal in 2020. The 23-year-old was arrested in Estepona in July 2021.
He is accused of hijacking a variety of verified accounts including those of then-Democratic presidential candidate Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The accounts of former president Obama, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Kanye West were also targeted.
O’Connor allegedly used the accounts to solicit digital currency, prompting Twitter to prevent some verified accounts from publishing messages for several hours until security could be restored.
The High Court said the US was in a better position to prosecute as that was where the evidence in the investigation was obtained.
O’Connor had objected to his proposed extradition in a previous hearing in Madrid.
The Spanish government still needs to confirm the extradition, but usually complies with orders from the High Court.
O’Connor has the right to appeal the extradition order.
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