Snowden email service Lavabit loses contempt appeal

A US appeals court has upheld a contempt of court ruling against Lavabit, the secure email service used by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the BBC reported.

The company was found in contempt of court last year after refusing to comply with an FBI order to hand over encryption keys in an investigation thought to relate to Mr Snowden.

After that ruling, Lavabit's owner Ladar Levison closed down the service.

Mr Levison could appeal against this latest decision in a higher court.

"I haven't read the court's opinion, nor sought advice from lawyers on any possible legal strategy, so that is still pending," he told news website Ars Technica.

Last June, the US government obtained a court order for Lavabit's encryption keys in order to allow investigators to track the email traffic of an unnamed target, thought to be Mr Snowden, who had an email account with the service.

Just hours before a deadline to hand over the information expired, Mr Levison provided the FBI with an 11-page printout listing the keys in tiny type, in effect making them unusable.

The court found Mr Levison in contempt and the government told Lavabit to provide the keys in an acceptable industry standard electronic format within three days.

Mr Levison did provide the information to the FBI by the new deadline but appealed against the court's contempt ruling.

A judge sitting on the case at the appeals court upheld the ruling as he said Mr Levison had never challenged the court order in the lower court.