Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Gary McKinnon NOT To Be Extradited To The US

Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who has been facing extradition to the US for the past decade, has been given a dramatic reprieve by the Home Secretary.

In a surprise move that may lead to diplomatic tensions, Theresa May announced to the House of Commons that he would be spared trial and up to 60 years in jail on human rights grounds.

She said medical reports, which agreed the 46-year-old would kill himself if he were sent to the US, were sufficient grounds to halt the extradition.

Mrs May described the case as “difficult and exceptional” and there was applause in the chamber as she announced that Mr McKinnon would be spared the ordeal of trial overseas.

But she added it would now be up to the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if Mr McKinnon – accused of carrying out the biggest military computer hack of all time – should be prosecuted in Britain.

The 46-year-old who suffers from Asperger's syndrome - a high-functioning form of autism - admits hacking into US military computers but claims he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

Judicial review

In January 2010 Mr Justice Mitting granted McKinnon a further judicial review of the decision of Home Secretary Alan Johnson to allow McKinnon’s extradition. Mitting distinguished two issues which were arguable, the first being whether Professor Turk's opinion that McKinnon would certainly commit suicide if extradited means that the Home Secretary must refuse extradition under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (which prevents a public authority from acting in a way incompatible with convention rights). The second was whether Professor Turk's opinion was a fundamental change to the circumstances that the courts had previously considered and ruled upon. Mitting ruled that if the answer to both questions was "Yes", then it was arguable that it would be unlawful to allow the extradition.

Coalition

In May 2010, the UK elected a coalition government. McKinnon was part of the coalition discussions[citation needed] and in their ‘Coalition Programme’ document it states:
We will review the operation of the Extradition Act – and the US/UK extradition treaty – to make sure it is even-handed.[26]
On 20 May 2010, the new home Secretary, Theresa May, adjourned the pending Judicial Review into the previous home Secretary’s decision. The Home Office said May would re-examine the medical evidence for herself to decide whether McKinnon should be extradited.[citation needed]
On 20 July 2010 Tom Bradby, ITN political editor, raised the Gary McKinnon issue with President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron in a joint White House press conference who responded that they have discussed it and are working to find an 'appropriate solution'.[38][39]

On 16 October 2012, after a series of legal proceedings in England, Home Secretary Theresa May withdrew his extradition order to the United States.[3]

Gary McKinnon (born 10 February 1966) is a Scottish[1] systems administrator and hacker who was accused in 2002 of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time,"[2] although McKinnon himself – who has the mental health condition known as autism – states that he was merely looking for evidence of free energy suppression and a cover-up of UFO activity and other technologies potentially useful to the public.

May told MPs she had taken the quasi-judicial decision on human rights grounds because of medical reports warning that McKinnon, 46, who has Asperger's syndrome and suffers from depressive illness, could kill himself if sent to stand trial in the US.

The irony that May's most popular decision as home secretary was taken because of the Human Rights Act, which she has pledged to scrap, was not lost on her critics. But in a promised overhaul of the extradition laws that accompanied the decision, May indicated that future home secretaries would be stripped of the very power that she had used to save the computer hacker.

McKinnon's MP, David Burrowes, who had threatened to resign from the government if the extradition went ahead, said May had saved McKinnon's life: "Today is a victory for compassion and the keeping of pre-election promises."

McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, said May had been "incredibly brave" to "stand up" to the Americans.

The extradition order against McKinnon has been withdrawn and it will now be for the director of public prosecutions to decide whether he should be prosecuted in Britain.

The home secretary told MPs that the treaty, which has been criticised as "lop-sided", was "broadly sound". But she made an important concession to critics, announcing that a "forum bar" would be introduced.

This will give a British court the power to bar prosecution overseas if it believes it will be fairer for the accused to face a British trial. This change may, however, take some time to come into effect as, rather than implementing an existing clause in the 2003 Extradition Act, May will introduce fresh legislation to overcome problems of delay and possible "satellite litigation".

She confirmed to MPs her intention to scrap the home secretary's discretion under the Human Rights Act that enabled her to prevent McKinnon's extradition. "Matters such as representations on human rights grounds should, in future, be considered by the high court rather than the home secretary.

The former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell told May the treaty still needed reform, in particular the standard of proof required. He hoped that no British citizen would be sent to the US unless there was "probable cause".

The Liberty director, Shami Chakrabarti, welcomed the McKinnon decision. "This is a great day for rights, freedoms and justice in the United Kingdom," she said. "The home secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty's longstanding argument for change to our rotten extradition laws."

In 2009, the Crown Prosecution Service said that while the evidence against McKinnon justified charges of ‘‘unauthorized access with intent,’’ it ‘‘does not come near to reflecting the criminality that is alleged by the American authorities.’’

US authorities sought his extradition under a 2003 treaty that, British critics of the legislation assert, was designed to help prosecute terrorists but has been misused by US prosecutors as a catch-all measure in less onerous cases unrelated to national security.

In 2011, British legislators urged the government to reform the procedures. Dominic Raab, a lawmaker for the governing Conservatives, said at the time that McKinnon should not be treated ‘‘like a gangland mobster or Al Qaeda mastermind.’’

May’s ruling was said by legal specialists to mark the first time that Britain had publicly thwarted a US demand made under the contentious treaty, which enables US authorities to seek extradition of suspects without providing substantive evidence of their purported crimes.

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon may still face charges in a British court. Quite right.

Her [Home Secretary Theresa May] decision is, however, still the right one. Not because Mr McKinnon's psychiatric issues obviate any crime he might have committed; nor even because the US legal system can reasonably be considered less judicious than our own; but because the hacking took place in this country, broke this country's laws, and should therefore be prosecuted here.

I would suggest Gary not do any traveling outside the country if the US decides to go the Interpol route with a red notice.