Hacker can launch fresh extradition bid
Updated on 23 January 2009
A Briton will be allowed to launch a fresh High Court bid over moves to extradite him on charges of hacking into US military networks.
Computer expert Gary McKinnon, 42, from Wood Green, north London, faces a lifetime in jail if he is found guilty in the US of sabotaging vital defence systems following the September 11 terror attacks.
Mr McKinnon was caught in 2002 as he tried to download a grainy black and white photograph which he believed was an alien spacecraft from a Nasa computer housed in the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.
He was easily traced by the authorities because he used his own email address.
His supporters say he acted through "naivety" as a result of his Asperger's Syndrome - a form of autism - and should not be considered a criminal.
Mr McKinnon believes he will get a fairer trial in the UK than in America. He also admitted to being "extremely stressed", adding: "I am very controlled, which is probably not a good thing, but inside the fires of hell are burning. It's not a good place to be."
Earlier this week, the High Court was told his medical condition was likely to give rise to psychosis or suicide if removed to the US, far away from his family, and he should be allowed to stand trial in the UK.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, appearing for Mr McKinnon, said: "The very fact of extradition will endanger his health."
He told Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Simon, sitting in London, his health would also be further endangered by the real risk that he would have to serve his sentence in tough conditions in an American supermaximum security prison.
He accused Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of failing to inform herself and properly consider these risks before deciding in October last year to permit extradition.
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