The UK High Court said today that it will review the Home
Secretary's decision to extradite
self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon to the US.
McKinnon has been charged with hacking into US military
databases and causing £350,000 worth of damage. He admitted in a
police interview that he hacked into federal computer systems, but
denied causing damage on the scale claimed.
This morning Lord Lustice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Simon
granted McKinnon's lawyer's appeal to review Jack Straw's 2005
decision to accede to the extradition.Straw's decision was
confirmed last year byhome secretary Jacqui Smith.
McKinnon was diagnosed recently as suffering from Asperger's
Syndrome, an autistic condition.The court heard this week that
McKinnon had at times been
suicidal.
The director of public prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, is
considering whether to grant
a petition to try McKinnon in the UK on the grounds that he has
already admitted breaching the Computer Misuse Act.
For a delighted McKinnon, this is the first good news in almost
four years of fighting his extradition. He exhausted all normal
channels, including the Law Lords and the European Court of Human
Rights, all of which had upheld the Home Secretary's decision.
In a statement, McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, said, "No UK
court has yet considered the impact on Gary of extradition in light
of his medical condition. Gary's family and supporters believed
this was unjust and are grateful that the High Court concurs."
She regretted that the Home Office had not confirmed whether, if
McKinnon was extradited, it would ask the US to repatriate him
following his trial, as happened with the
Natwest
Three. These were three British bankers who pleaded guilty in
the US for defrauding Natwest in an Enron-related transaction, even
though the DPP declined to prosecute them in the UK.
Janis Sharp, McKinnon's mother, said in a statement, "We are
overjoyed that the British courts have shown sense and compassion
by allowing this judicial review. We also have high hopes for a
just outcome of the decision to be made by Keir Starmer."
She added, "Perhaps now that Obama is in power in America, our
world might really become a more compassionate place where
consideration, a sense of perspective and individuals' human rights
are brought to the fore."