Lawyers for accused hacker appeal bail denial in court

Lawyers for a Canadian accused in a massive hack of Yahoo emails say a judge who denied their client bail overstated his alleged role in the scheme.

Karim Baratov’s legal team was in court Monday appealing an April ruling by Ontario Superior Court Justice Alan Whitten, who decided the 22-year-old was too much of a flight risk to be released on bail.

Baratov was arrested in March under the Extradition Act after U.S. authorities indicted him and three others — two of them allegedly officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service — for computer hacking, economic espionage and other crimes.

Baratov’s lawyers argued Monday that Whitten had made several errors, including amplifying the Hamilton man’s alleged connection to the Yahoo hack and the Russian intelligence agent who allegedly hired him.

“(Our argument is) painting him as a small fish, and not affiliated to the Yahoo hack,” Baratov’s lawyer Amedeo DiCarlo said outside court.

Ravin Pillay, another one of Baratov’s lawyers, said in court that there’s no evidence to suggest his client was involved in the largescale breach of Yahoo security systems.

Emails between Baratov and his alleged contact in the Russian intelligence service show he was only allegedly hired to hack into 80 accounts, and only allegedly succeeded in accessing seven, Pillay said.

In denying Baratov bail, Whitten said he believed Baratov would be motivated to flee, given that he could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted in the U.S.

But Pillay said Baratov doesn’t pose a flight risk because there’s nowhere for him to flee to.

A decision on Baratov’s bail appeal is expected later this week.