Timișoara Court of Appeal rejected on Friday the U.S. authorities’ request to extradite Marcel Lazăr Lehel who hacked the mail correspondence of several American personalities, with the most publicised case being the one of the former secretary of state Colin Powell.
Lazăr, aka Guccifer, was not present in the court room, being detained in Arad Penitentiary.
The FBI has officially asked for his extradition to appear in an American court for having broken into the e-mail accounts of several personalities and revealed their personal correspondence.
Guccifer became famous after he had also hacked the e-mails of some Romanian public persons such as former Romanian Intelligence Service head George Maior or Social Democrat MEP Corin Crețu. The Bucharest Tribunal has sentenced him to 7 years in prison in June 2014.
Marcel Lazăr Lehel broke into the e-mail accounts of Colin Powell, some members of the Bush and Rockefeller families, but also of some stars in USA and Romania such as Corina Caragea, Laura Cosoi, Roxana Ivănescu, Rona Hartner, Bianca Drăgușanu or Cristian Pulhac.