Hacker is protected by Home Secretary's decision
Civil liberties lawyers have welcomed Home Secretary Theresa May’s decision to stop the extradition of Gary McKinnon.
McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, hacked into US Pentagon and NASA computers between 1999 and 2002. He claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs.
The US authorities want to prosecute him for charges that could lead to a 60-year prison sentence.
His decade-long legal battle against extradition to the US finally came to a halt this week when May halted his extradition on the grounds it would be incompatible with his human rights—a Home Office-commissioned psychiatrists’ report warned McKinnon would be at risk of suicide if sent to the US.
May also announced that legislation will be brought forward to introduce a “forum bar”, under which UK courts could bar extradition where this is in the interests of justice and the alleged conduct had taken place in whole or in part in the UK.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, says: “The Home Secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty’s long-standing argument for change to our rotten extradition laws.
“Extradition should prevent fugitives escaping—not allow for Britons like Gary to be parcelled off around the world based on allegations of offences committed here at home.”
However, McKinnon’s eleventh-hour reprieve has thrown a spotlight on the fate of Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan, who were sent to the US last month to answer alleged terrorism charges committed on British soil. Ahsan also suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.
