Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom will be allowed to pursue damages against New Zealand’s spy agency for illegally spying on him, the country’s Court of Appeal ruled Thursday.

The court upheld in part a High Court decision from December that added the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) as a defendant in the case, which was opposed and later appealed by New Zealand’s attorney general.

Dotcom and several of his colleagues were spied on starting in December 2011 by the GCSB leading up to the January 2012 raid on his mansion outside of Auckland. The spying was later found to be illegal since Dotcom, who has German and Finnish citizenship, and Bram van der Kolk, who is Dutch, are permanent residents of New Zealand.

The GCSB is allowed to observe foreign nationals but was unaware of Dotcom and van der Kolk’s residency status. In September, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key called for an inquiry and expressed “disappointment that unlawful acts had taken place.”

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