Gary McKinnon, the British computer hacker who cracked open the Pentagon and NASA systems in the US, has lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and could face immediate extradition to the US to stand trial.
His lawyers indicated on Thursday night that they were urging the UK home secretary to allow McKinnon to stand trial in the UK as he had recently been diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.
McKinnon, 42, from Bounds Green, north London, who has been described in the US as the biggest military hacker of all time, faces a series of charges in the US in connection with hacking activities that took place nearly 10 years ago. He is alleged to have broken into 53 US Army, 26 US Navy and 16 NASA computer systems and to have caused US$700,000 in damage to the systems, in which he left disparaging messages about their security arrangements.
LOST APPEAL
He lost his appeal against extradition in the UK House of Lords, the UK’s highest court of appeal, following a hearing last month in which it was argued that if he were to stand trial, it should be in the UK. He was granted a temporary stay by the European court on Aug. 12 after applying to it for “interim relief.” The temporary stay was lifted on Thursday.
“The offenses for which our client’s extradition is sought were committed on British soil and we maintain that any prosecution of our client ought therefore to be carried out by the appropriate British authorities,” his lawyer, Karen Todner, said on Thursday. “Our client faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot.”
‘WORRYING TREND’
Todner added: “Our client’s case highlights a worrying trend where UK citizens are at the mercy of the ever-increasing tendency of overseas prosecutors to extend their jurisdiction to crimes allegedly committed in this country.”
As McKinnon had been diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, she was writing to UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, inviting a prosecution in this country.
James Welch, legal director of Liberty, said: “It is a shame that the court of human rights will allow his extradition even as they consider whether US extradition measures were fair.”
McKinnon, 42, was inspired as a teenager in 1983 by the film WarGames, in which a teenager hacks into the Pentagon system. He started hacking into US military and space computer systems because he believed they contained information about UFOs.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS