Security News > 2021 > March > Defense of Convicted Cypriot Hacker in US Not Seeking Appeal
A lawyer for a Cypriot hacker who has served almost four years behind bars said he will not appeal against a one-year jail sentence in the US for cyber-crimes he committed as a minor.
A Georgia court handed down the jail term on Thursday in the trial of Joshua Pelloso Epifaniou, now 22, who was arrested in Cyprus in May 2017 and last year became the first Cypriot national ever extradited to the United States.
Cyprus-based lawyer Michael Chambers, in an email to AFP, said an appeal would not be filed although Epifaniou had confessed and was expecting to be freed on time served.
Epifaniou pleaded guilty to federal computer fraud charges brought in Arizona and Georgia.
Between October 2014 and May 2017, Epifaniou hacked websites and monitored online traffic to identify extortion targets.
Initially arrested in Nicosia at the age of 17, he spent more than three years in a Cypriot jail without being convicted and fighting extradition.