Gary McKinnon: Campaigners Demand Change to Extradition Laws

By Shane Croucher: Subscribe to Shane's RSS feed

February 9, 2012 10:58 AM EST

Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the US for hacking into their government computer systems (Andrew Winning/Reuters)

Gary McKinnon faces extradition to the US for hacking into Washington's computer systems (Andrew Winning/Reuters)

For 10 years computer hacker Gary McKinnon has lived with the threat of extradition to the US and a 60-year jail sentence hanging over him.

From his Glasgow living room McKinnon hacked into the computer systems at the heart of the US government, the Pentagon and Nasa.

When he was found out, Washington demanded that the British legal system extradite him to face trial in the US.

This 46-year-old hacker, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, says he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

He was not trying to bring down the government, he says, nor trying to leak sensitive security material to whatever enemy the US had positioned itself against that week but trying to discover "the truth" about flying saucers and little green men.

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His mental health issues coupled with the pressure of fighting extradition for a decade means that he would be a suicide risk if he were put on trial in the US, say his lawyers.

They add that because the offences, which he confesses to, were committed on British soil he should face trial for them in the UK.

Campaigners hope that the home secretary, Theresa May, will intervene after years of legal wrangling and stop the extradition. Legislation, they say, is in desperate need of a rethink because it is weighted heavily in favour of the US.

The Extradition Act 2003 means that people can be extradited to certain countries, including the US, even if the offence against them does not exist on the UK's statute books.

Human rights organisation Liberty's Extradition Watch campaign is striving for legislative changes and greater safeguards.

"The 2003 Act was introduced in that post 9-11 context. They were looking to speed up extradition and of course the initial motivation was terrorists," Sophie Farthing, Liberty policy officer, told International Business Times UK.

"The problem with our extradition system is that for the sake of having an expeditious system, the government has got rid of too many safeguards.

"What we have been campaigning for is for there to be safeguards put back into our extradition system."

Liberty is cautiously optimistic that the government will make a decision about McKinnon's case soon.

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