LONDON – A Briton wanted in the US for breaking into Nasa and Pentagon computers in “the biggest military hack of all time” has lost an appeal against his extradition, making a US trial more likely.
Gary McKinnon (43) has fought a three-year battle to avoid extradition, including going to the European Court of Human Rights, but he appeared to run out of options yesterday as Britain’s high court ruled against his latest appeal.
The court acknowledged arguments by defence lawyers that extraditing Mr McKinnon, who was recently diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, could have disastrous consequences for his health but said that, while he might suffer by being extradited, the process of the law overruled those concerns.
“I have no doubt that he will find extradition to and trial and sentence and detention in the United States very difficult indeed,” Lord Justice Stanley Burnton wrote in his judgment, accepting that even suicide was a possibility.
However he ruled that Mr McKinnon’s condition was not severe enough to set aside the process of the law.
Calls for a judicial review of the case were also dismissed. Lawyers had challenged a refusal by Britain’s chief prosecutor to allow Mr McKinnon to be tried in Britain, which would have avoided any need for extradition. – (Reuters)