Gary McKinnon’s Appeal Denied – Will Be Tried in US
Gary McKinnon, the internet hacker who has been accused of breaking into US high security computers, faces a trial in the US. The appeal against his extradition from London to US has been denied by the Home Office.
McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, faces up to 60 years in jail if he is convicted. He has already confessed that he had hacked into 97 US government computers in NASA and Pentagon in 2001-2002, seeking information on UFOs which were run on clean fuel.
His solicitor hopes to be able to put together a judicial review which would be heard before Christmas. Otherwise they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, as the High Court has already refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
McKinnon has many supporters who oppose his extradition and his mother says that he has already ‘been in a heightened state of terror for almost eight years’. While his supporters make his medical history a cause for concern, the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, said that it was not sufficient to block his extradition.