It shouldn't be located in Europe (because, as you said, US minions are no better than the US itself). Instead it should move to a neutral country, somewhere like Singapore or Uruguay.
That said, they don't have to grab the satellite. They have to grab you. Computer vandalism/sabotage/... laws in a lot of legal systems already apply to the controlling people in their home location regardless of the physical location/origin of the computer activity. Your controlling the computer/satellite/botnet/... is the illegal act, not the network packets leaving those systems.
They'll have to identify you first though, which might give some legal shielding.
It is free only if you ignore the cost of getting the thing into the orbit in the first place.
Edit: also, AFAIK, normal microchips (without special radiation hardening) don't last that long in space