UK Hacker Wins More Time to Fight U.S. Extradition

[Elmore Furth]

Here is a hacker breaking into US government networks to find evidence about alien life forms. This UK alien seems to be more than enough for me.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British computer hacker accused by the United States of breaking into military and government networks has won more time to fight against extradition, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Gary McKinnon, 44, who says he was trawling the networks for evidence of aliens and secret technology, could be jailed for up to 70 years if he is convicted of what U.S. officials have described as the "biggest military computer hack of all time."

His lawyer Karen Todner said she had successfully lobbied Britain's new Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May to reconsider the U.S. extradition request.

Todner says McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, is too ill to be sent for trial in the United States. She has asked senior judges to review a ruling by former interior minister Alan Johnson that McKinnon is fit to be extradited and that it would not breach his human rights.

UK Hacker Wins More Time to Fight U.S. Extradition

[MicaelS]

1. Put an end to this...

Let this kook stay in the UK, keep the prison space for real (violent) criminals. And fuck the Aspie defense. There are more important issues to deal with, than wasting time on idiots like this clown. This is just about US prosecutors acting tough and wanting another notch for their conviction rate.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The coalition agreement between Cons and Lib Dems include reviewing the US extradition agreement

that Labour brought in - it's excessively one-sided (basically, UK citizens can be extradited to the US without any evidence being reviewed by a British court - if an American court issues a warrant, all Britain is meant to do is check the identity of the person, and then hand them over to the US). Meanwhile, the US Senate, unsurprisingly, made sure they kept the requirement that extradition from the US to the UK needed the demonstration of evidence, in an American court, that the charges are valid.