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U.S. govt files motion to compel Apple to work with FBI

Xinhua, February 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Department of Justice on Friday filed a motion to compel Apple to comply with a court order to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) access data on an iPhone owned by a terrorist killer.

A court document filed by the department accused Apple of "publicly repudiating" Tuesday's court order that it should assist investigators in accessing data on the iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, California attack on Dec. 2 last year, which left 14 people dead.

"Apple has attempted to design and market its products to allow technology, rather than the law, to control access to data which has been found by this Court to be warranted for an important investigation," the document wrote.

It noted that Apple "has consistently complied with a significant number of orders issued... to facilitate the execution of search warrants on Apple devices running earlier versions of iOS" in the past.

Also on Friday, Apple was granted an additional three days to respond to the order, with a Feb. 26 deadline.

Earlier this week, Timothy Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, posted an open letter on the company's website, calling the order "an unprecedented step" threatening the security of Apple customers.

"We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone," Cook wrote. Enditem