Boris blasts "brutal" bid to extradite McKinnon

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 Jan 2009 at 16:30

London Mayor Boris Johnson has backed Gary McKinnon's bid to avoid extradition to the US.

The Brit is facing up to 70 years in jail if convicted of hacking offences in the US - although he last week won a judicial review against the decision to extradite him for trial in the US.

Johnson claims McKinnon is guilty of nothing more than harmlessly searching for evidence of UFOs. "To listen to the ravings of the US military, you would think that Mr McKinnon is a threat to national security on a par with Osama bin Laden," the Mayor writes in his Daily Telegraph column.

"According to the Americans, this mild-mannered computer programmer has done more damage to their war-fighting capabilities than all the orange-pyjama-clad suspects of Guantanamo combined."

Johnson claims it is "brutal, mad and wrong" to pursue the extradition of someone who isn't even "a proper hacker", especially given his medical condition.

"He has been diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome, for heaven's sake. How can the British government be so protoplasmic, so pathetic, so heedless of the well-being of its own people, as to sign the warrant for his extradition?"

The Mayor pleads with new President Barack Obama to show clemency. Previous appeals to the Bush administration have failed.