Gary McKinnon – Will he be extradited?
There seems that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for Garry McKinnon, as the saga of whether he will be extradited to the US to face charges of computer hacking continues.
McKinnon has repeatedly resisted attempts to extradite him on the grounds that the offence was committed in the UK and his lawyer, Karen Todner has written to Keir Starmer QC, who is the recently appointed director of public prosecutions, requesting that he be charged under the Misuse of Computers Act. Ms Todner said that her client would plead guilty to the offence, to which he acknowledged his guilt and that proceedings against him could now be brought because there is clear evidence of a crime having been committed.
McKinnon, who is 42, fears for his chances of a fair trial in the US. He is accused of hacking into the US defence and NASA systems in 2001 and 2002 and causing an estimated £525,000 worth of damage. McKinnon denies causing any damage, but admits to hacking into the systems and leaving messages saying “your security is crap”. He lost his appeal against extradition in the House of Lords last year.
McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and in a letter to the DPP, his mother, Janis Sharp wrote; “Many people with Asperger’s have a heightened sense of justice and have obsessions, which can sometimes get them into trouble. Gary’s obsession was computers.” The National Autistic Society (NAS) has offered to provide evidence about the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, in order to support McKinnon.
McKinnon’s mother said that there were precedents for British based computer hackers to be tried in this country and they have the political support of about 80 MP’s who have signed an early day motion tabled by McKinnon’s MP, David Burrowes.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Articles, Business Advice, Data Security, IT Advice, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
