Self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon's
mother has
written to the Director of Public Prosecutions in a renewed
effort to stop his extradition to the US and have him tried in the
UK.
Karen Todner, McKinnon's lawyer, has also asked the Crown
Prosecution Service to try her client in the UK. Todner believes an
admission of guilt signed by McKinnon and sent to the DPP entitles
him to a British trial under the Computer Misuse Act.
>> Read the full letter:
Gary McKinnon's mother's appeal to the DPP
McKinnon is wanted by the US to face
charges that he hacked into Nasa and US defence computers and
caused damage worth thousands of dollars. McKinnion admits the
hacking, but denies causing damage.
Mckinnon's mother, Janis Sharp told
Keir Starmer that she wanted her son to receive equal treatment
to that received by
Aaron Caffrey, a 19-year-old whom the Americans wanted
extradited for a denial of service attack on one of the US's
business harbours, Houston, on 20 September2001.
"I am not asking for Gary to be excused I am merely asking that
he can be tried in the UK on all of the charges already brought by
the Americans and if need be, punished here," Sharp wrote to
Starmer.
"I am not requesting this merely for compassionate reasons but
am asking on the basis of the right for my son Gary to receive
equal treatment to Aaron Caffrey," she said.
Demonstration outside Home Office to halt the
extradition of Gary McKinnon
According to Sharp, the same CPS official dealt with both
Caffrey's and McKinnon's cases. She said this person led Gary and
his solicitor to understand at the time that he had been instructed
from "the very top" to basically stand aside for America to
prosecute Gary. "What we did not know at the time was that
simultaneously the CPS was deciding to approve the prosecution of
Aaron Caffrey in Southwark Crown Court," she said.
Caffrey, who admitted he was a member of a white hat hacking
group, admitted the attack came from his computer, but said it was
due to a Trojan that ran without his knowledge. A forensic
examination of Caffrey's computer showed no evidence of the Trojan.
Caffrey was tried in the UK and acquitted because the jury was not
convinced he had hacked the port's computers.
Sharp said the Home Secretary (Jack Straw) had previously turned
down extradition requests for former Chilean dictator leader
Augusto
Pinochet, and alleged IRA terrorist
Roisin
McAliskey on health grounds. He had also tried to negotiate the
release of
Michael Shields from Bulgaria, who had been convicted for
attempted murderer.
"(Jack Straw) should feel it only fair to allow a gentle person
like Gary to be tried in the UK as Gary has no criminal record and
has never hurt anyone and his crime was merely his obsessive
behaviour caused by Asperger Syndrome," Sharp said.