All of the mostly-young defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of carrying out a cyber attack against PayPal late last year in support of Anonymous, the hacktivist network that protested companies who blocked financial services to WikiLeaks.
Russian-based members of Anonymous also told the BBC they they had taken part in hacking attacks in various countries, including those on Visa, Mastercard and Paypal in late 2010 in support of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.