Home Office "reconsidering McKinnon extradition"

 

Gallery

By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 19 May 2010 at 08:40

The Home Office has confirmed it is reconsidering the extradition to the United States of self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon.

The Asperger's Syndrome sufferer was awaiting extradition to face trial in the US, where he faced 70 years' imprisonment for hacking into NASA computers.

However, the case could be reviewed after his legal team wrote to the new Home Secretary, Theresa May, with an appeal that the Home Office is now considering.

“The Home Secretary has received a letter from Gary McKinnon's legal team asking her to agree to an adjournment of the judicial review in light of further representations,” the Home Office told PC Pro. “A response will be sent as soon as possible.

“What that means is that they are not asking for them to cancel the whole thing - it's an adjournment to halt the proceedings and see which way to proceed. They are considering that at the moment.”

McKinnon's legal team and family are hopeful that the new Government will look at his case more favourably than Labour, because both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have previously expressed the view that he should face trial in the UK.

"We hope the new Liberal-Conservative Government will act upon their previous public statements that it would be unjust to extradite Mr McKinnon," the hacker's solicitor, Karen Todner, said in a statement.