In a submission on Friday, Hutchins said the US Congress had not indicated clearly that the Wiretap Act — under which he was charged — was intended to have extra-territorial reach.

Some of the counts against him were not a domestic application of the law, he argued.

Hutchins is in Milwaukee in the US state of Wisconsin, awaiting trial on charges that he wrote and helped distribute a banking trojan known as Kronos.

Hutchins gained the attention of the world when he stopped the spread of the WannaCry ransomware by accident in May last year.

The initial chargesheet against him said he had written and helped distribute Kronos along with an unnamed co-conspirator.

A second objection raised by Hutchins' legal team was that the prosecution had violated his rights to due process because he had "no substantial nexus" with the US in the time period covered in his indictment.

Last month, the FBI issued an updated indictment against Hutchins. The new charges include a claim that he had lied to the agency and listed the pseudonyms of people with whom he is claimed to have collaborated to advertise and sell the Kronos banking trojan between July 2014 and July 2015.

Additionally, Hutchins was accused of creating and selling malware known as UPAS Kit in July 2012 which is said to be able to exfiltrate credit card information and personally identifiable information.