Victor Faur, who is known as SirVic in hacker circles, managed to hack computer systems of NASA as well as the national energy agency and NAVY in 2004 and 2006.

The US have accused the Romanian of having caused a total of EUR 1.3m in damage, including by disabling communications with spacecraft operated by NASA, and issued an international warrant against him.

Faur was pulled over by the Slovenian traffic police in a routine check on his way to Italy last October, and was detained and handed over to the Murska Sobota District Court on the basis of the international warrant.

The 29-year-old was put in custody until a final decision on his extradition to the US. Faur argued against the extradition as he had already been sentenced in Romania for the acts he is wanted for in the US.

Faur claimed that he could not be tried two times for the same criminal act as he was sentenced in Romania to a suspended prison sentence and had to pay US$240,000 to the damaged agencies. He also said he hacked the systems only to point to their vulnerability.

In the decision not to extradite the Romanian, the court referred to the fact that he had already been tried and sentenced in his country. The decision will now be reviewed by the Maribor Higher Court.

"If the Higher Court upholds the decision of the Murska Sobota District Court, Victor Faur will be released from custody," representatives of the court have told Delo.

In the meantime, Faur was also sentenced in Slovenia to a five-month suspended prison sentence and had to pay a EUR 400 fine for an attempt to bribe a prison guard.