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Comment by beaglesss | Hacker News Reader

In part yes but inevitably devolves into an ad hominem attack against the most high profile case of a guy who did it, who is now hiding in Ukraine on a Prednistrovian passport after having his conviction overturned (temporarily) giving him an escape window.

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Weev hasn’t been in Ukraine in a good few years. He was last confirmed spotted in Transnistria before the 2022 invasion and apparently hasn’t moved on since.

His stay in Ukraine was rather brief, he was… not well liked there.

How do you have a conviction temporarily overturned? I thought the US had rules about double jeopardy. Unless you're referring to some other charges he hasn't been tried for.

They ruled it was tried in the wrong jurisdiction thus basically never happened. There is likely a sealed indictment awaiting in another jurisdiction where they will try again, now knowing the trial strategy of the defense.

Overturning a conviction is usually permanent, however, that does not necessarily mean the verdict becomes Not Guilty, and only when the verdict is Not Guilty does double jeopardy come into play. It is possible for a higher court to overturn a lower courts decision, have it returned for reconsideration, or even a whole retrial. In other cases a higher court will overturn a verdict and instruct the lower court the change the verdict to Not Guilty.

> hiding in Ukraine

Huh. Uh, weird choice, given, well, you know…

Before he spent some time in Transnistria as well, which is also a weird choice.

It's an excellent choice IMO from his perspective. They grant citizenship after 1 year with not a lot of questions and have a cash economy. And they don't extradite to the US.

They'll also not above confiscating your cash and killing you if its suits them. Or (before the war) they wouldn't think twice to send you to Russia to be used as a bargaining chip.

Weev is effectively banned from the banking system. The list of places with enough infrastructure to survive as a hacker, without foreign citizenship and in a cash/crypto economy with no extradition treaty is thin. I'm sure Transnistria might do that but apparently it wasn't worth their time to kill him. Seems better than North Korea, Iran, or the bush of Africa.

Maybe not. If you claim to be living in an active warzone and go missing who would look for you?

Flee to Western Europe under an assumed identity, get taken in as a refugee?

Assuming you can fluently speak in a language expected of a refugee and are not from a country that has your prints on file...

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