The Office of the Attorney General of Zurich is seeking a twelve-year prison sentence for the Ukrainian software developer, as well as a deportation order of the same duration.. Keystone-SDA

A suspected hacker denied charges of developing ransomware at Zurich District Court on Monday, as prosecutors sought a lengthy prison sentence for the 52-year-old defendant.

He told the court that he had never developed malware or taken part in any attacks. The source code for such programmes on his devices came from a client in the IT security sector for whom he had worked as a consultant, he claimed.

The Office of the Attorney General of Zurich is seeking a twelve-year prison sentence for the Ukrainian software developer, as well as a deportation order of the same duration.

He is accused of having been the lead developer of criminal ransomware such as “Lockergoga”. Among the victims in Switzerland are Stadler Rail, Meier Tobler and Crealogix. The indictment lists further companies abroad that were also affected.

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The defence requested that further files from other proceedings be taken into account and questioned the admissibility of the digital evidence. It argued that there was no complete documentation of the raw data that had been secured.

The encryption and service disruptions caused the affected companies losses worth millions of Swiss francs. The accused has been in custody since October 2021.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist. 

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