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London
31 July 2009
Britain's High Court Friday rejected an appeal by a British man against
his extradition to the United States to face charges of hacking into
military computers. Gary McKinnon was arrested in 2002 and has been
fighting to stay in Britain.
Briton Gary McKinnon lost his long legal battle Friday, and could face extradition to the United States as early as September.
McKinnon
is charged with hacking into the computer networks of NASA, the
Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies in 2001 and 2002 soon after
the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
McKinnon's lawyers
had argued that their client, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a
form of autism, would be at risk of a mental breakdown or suicide if
sent to the United States.
But the judges ruled that the
extradition was lawful and proportionate to his crime, which U.S.
prosecutors have called "the biggest military computer hack of all
time."
Outside the court, McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, called
the ruling a disgrace and made a plea to U.S. President Barack Obama
for leniency.
"This is from the Bush era," she said. "It's not
of Obama. He would not want this to happen. Robert Gates from the
Pentagon said there's tens of thousands of extraditions every month.
Are they going to extradite everyone? Or just one guy who has got
Asperger's [syndrome] and was looking for UFOs, who had the naiveté to
admit to computer misuse with no lawyer? And they thought, 'Soft touch,
he'll do.' That's a reality."
In interviews with British media in 2006, McKinnon said he was looking for secret UFO technology.
"I
was in search of suppressed technology, you know, laughingly referred
to as UFO technology," he said. "I think it's the biggest kept secret
in the world because of its value. Meanwhile, secretive parts of the
secret government are sitting on suppressed technology for free energy."
McKinnon's
lawyer said she would review the judgment and could appeal the High
Court decision to Britain's Supreme Court or European courts on
humanitarian grounds.
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