Giglio defends Meli advice to accept US extradition

Nationalist MP defends legal advice he gave hacking suspect to accept US extradition, but now agrees with PN that government should oppose sending man to face justice in America

By: maltatoday.com

Aug 16 2024
38
3903 Views

Giglio defends Meli advice to

Nationalist MP Joe Giglio was the lawyer who advised Daniel Joe Meli, 28, to accept being extradited to the United States. But now he says he believes Meli should face justice in Malta.

The lawyer’s latter statement came after his party called on the government to oppose the extradition so that Meli could face proceedings in Malta and not the US.

In defending his actions, Giglio told MaltaToday that he was acting as a lawyer who had to work with the law as it presently exists.

Giglio said that his legal advice was the result of three factors, including the accused’s willingness to cooperate with the authorities, lengthy discussions he had with his client and prosecutors, as well as the nature of the extradition law itself.

“Malta’s extradition law is mostly based on the concept of reciprocity and cooperation between states. They are an administrative exercise, and the emphasis is more on states helping one another. There is little focus on the individual involved,” Giglio told MaltaToday when asked what had motivated his now discredited advice.

But the MP – until recently a shadow minister for home affairs – did not believe that his legal advice and the PN’s stance on the case contradicted each other. The PN is now advocating for the government to oppose the extradition of the Maltese national to the US, saying that any crime committed in Malta should be judged and punished in Malta.

Giglio even described Malta’s current extradition laws as being “too draconian” and in need of a thorough overhaul.

Earlier this year, Giglio – a criminal defence lawyer – represented Daniel Joe Meli, after his extradition was requested by the Northern District of Georgia in the US. He had been indicted in December 2023 on charges of selling computer malware.

US prosecutors accuse Meli of having offered malware products and services, amongst them the Pegasus remote access trojan (RAT), for sale to cybercriminals through online computer-hacking forums since 2012.

Meli had surprised observers when he told a court he would face justice in the United States. It turns out that it was his lawyer, Joe Giglio, who gave the young man this advice. According to Meli’s parents, his view was that a cooperative suspect could get a maximum of five years in a US jail.

In an interview with MaltaToday last week, the accused’s parents appealed for diplomatic intervention so that their son could at least serve time in Malta and not be incarcerated in an American penitentiary should he be found guilty.

But they said it was their first lawyer, Giglio, who had advised Meli to accept the extradition, giving the family the impression that he could face a maximum of five years’ imprisonment in the United States by co-operating with prosecutors.

The Meli family told MaltaToday that they immediately regretted having taken on his recommendation, once they learned that their son could face a maximum of 45 years in an American jail.

A few days later, Meli appealed the court’s decision that green-lighted his extradition to the United States.

The defendant argued that no attempt had been made to verify whether he had been medically stable and capable of understanding the implication of the extradition he was consenting to, “despite his long history of mental health problems and medical substance abuse.”

Following the parents’ appeal, the Maltese government has now stated it is closely monitoring the situation. The PN called for the extradition request to be blocked, insisting that the Maltese government should not accept the extradition of Maltese citizens when the alleged crimes took place on Maltese soil.

Meli is currently hoping a constitutional case can stop the extradition.

The charges Meli could face in America are conspiracy, obtaining unauthorised access to protected computers to obtain information, illegally selling an interception device, and illegally advertising an interception device, each provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of causing unauthorised damage to protected computers provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. 

Meli was arrested at his workplace in Gudja on 7 February 2024, and during searches conducted at various locations related to the suspect, numerous items linked to this investigation were seized. 

The end of the road came for Meli when in February 2022 he sold a RAT for $180 in Bitcoin to an FBI online covert employee from Georgia. From then onwards, the FBI was tracking his operations, one of several in a global anti-cybercrime investigation that spread as far as Australia.

It is alleged that after tricking victims into installing the malware on their computers via email attachments or fake links, criminals could then browse file systems, record keystrokes, steal usernames and passwords, and access web cameras. The AFP, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Europol were among several international police forces to have worked together on Meli’s arrest. 

Separately, another man, Prince Onyeoziri Odinakachi, 31, was arrested in Nigeria, also on 7 February. He is alleged to have provided online customer support to individuals who purchased and used the Warzone malware from June 2019. 

The Nigerian authorities, however refused an extradition request and tried Odinakachi locally. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, which he will serve in Nigeria.