The fate of Kickass Torrents remains bleak as its rumored owner, Artem Vaulin, stays behind bars.
TorrentFreak revealed that a Polish appeals court refused to grant the request of Vaulin's camp for a supervised release.
The 30-year-old Ukrainian citizen was arrested in Poland back in July on behalf of the US government. He was charged with a four-count criminal indictment under the US laws for being one of the founders of the popular torrent site.
According to Vaulin's defense team, there is no truth to all of the accusations thrown at their client. They appealed to a US federal court to dismiss the entire case and allow him to be released from prison on bail while waiting for the extradition hearing.
One of the defense team's arguments reportedly questioned the legality of applying US laws to the Polish court. They also claimed that their client needs immediate proper medical care due to a spinal hernia that he reportedly has. The team wants the court to release Vaulin under police supervision and stay in Poland as needed.
However, the report claimed that Polish judge Marzana Piekarska-Drążek reviewed the appeal and decided to keep the rumored KickassTorrents owner to stay in prison because there might be complications during the extradition proceedings.
The judge also said that the Vaulin's health issues were not exactly severe, and he does not need an immediate medical attention. However, the Polish prison will reportedly give him all the help that he needs while he stays in prison.
Val Gurvits, one of Vaulin's defense team, reportedly reached out to the publication to express their disappointment about the ruling from the Polish court. According to Gurvits, they are deeply saddened because of the continuous ban to have an attorney–client meeting with Vaulin while he stays in Poland.
"In addition, it seems that the Polish authorities prematurely handed over to the US authorities Artem's personal effects including his laptop. This is troubling since Artem was denied his right to oppose this," the lawyer said.
At the moment, the Kickass Torrents website remains down. This required torrent users to look for other sources for their file sharing needs.
Some of the most used alternative websites include The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, and the newly redesigned 1337X that reportedly had a dramatic increase in popularity after the shutting down of Kickass Torrents.
