Gary McKinnon extradition on hold. Again.
p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- The seven-year fight between self-confessed ‘bumbling’ computer nerd Gary McKinnon, and America’s national security forces is on hold. Again.
Backed by supporters who include Trudie Styler (left), Gary and his mother, Janis Sharp (right), have been fighting extradition to the US where he’s wanted for hacking military computer systems in his search for classified data on UFOs.
He was recently refused permission to appeal his extradition to the UK Supreme Court, prompting his lawyers to say the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg might be the next stop.
Now, “Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said he will study new medical evidence before approving the extradition to the US of computer hacker Gary McKinnon,” says the BBC.
McKinnon has Asperger’s syndrome. People suffering from the condition have difficulties with communication, social adjustment and independent living, says the Wikipedia.
According to the BBC, Johnson says he’s “stopped the clock” to give McKinnon’s lawyers time to appeal in Europe.
This summer, Janis Sharp told p2pnet, “Gary was accused of hacking into the Pentagon more than seven years ago and the British High-Tech crime unit told him they had been monitoring his computers for six months and as he had caused no damage he would be facing approximately six months community service.
“However the CPS [UK crown prosecutors] decided not to prosecute Gary as they said ‘it came from the very top that they were told to stand aside and allow America to take Gary.’
“Gary was indicted by the US in 2002 and told that he faced 60 years imprisonment =10years per count x 6. It was from this day that our nightmare began.
“Gary told me after his arrest in March 2002 that when he did a simple scan for blank passwords that he was shocked to find that there were no passwords and no firewalls on thousands of machines.
“We have since discovered that this was the case not for weeks but for years on end.”
Stay tuned.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
next stop – Gary McKinnon loses extradition appeal, October 9, 2009
BBC – Hacker’s extradition put on hold, October 27, 2009
p2pnet – Gary McKinnon’s mother to Obama: Please Help!, July 28, 20
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