Government: McKinnon could serve sentence in UK

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 3 Aug 2009 at 11:00

The Government has said it will request that Gary McKinnon serve his sentence in the UK, should his extradition to stand trial in the US go ahead.

"If found guilty, we will seek for him to serve his sentence in this country," deputy leader Harriet Harman told the BBC's Sunday AM programme.

She also claimed that the Government had requested assurances from the US over his health. Asperger's sufferers often exhibit obsessive behaviour and social naivety, which McKinnon's lawyers have claimed could lead to a mental breakdown should he be extradited.

"There certainly have been assurances sought and given that if, and when, the extradition takes place... his health needs will be attended to," said Harman.

The comments come days after McKinnon lost the judicial review of his case at the Royal Courts of Justice. Extradition now seems inevitable, though his legal team have promised to take his case before the European Court of Human Rights and US Supreme Court.

Responding to criticism of the Home Office's refusal to block the extradition, Home Secretary Alan Johnson claimed any such move would be breaking the law.

Writing in The Sunday Times, Johnson claimed "the crimes he is accused of are far from trivial" and claimed McKinnon "should be tried fairly for them in a court of law and in the country where the impact of those crimes were felt".