Police frontmanStingand wife Trudie Styler are among the latest celebrities to
support self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon's bid to be tried in
the UK for what US officials call
"the biggest military hack of all
time".
Sting and Styler have written to home secretary Jacqui Smith
backing his case against extradition to the US,
reports
the Mail on Sunday.
Last week, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) said
he found "no evidence" on which to charge McKinnon in the UK.
Lawyers for McKinnon said the DPP had not asked to see what
evidence the US held for its extradition request.
Extradition arrangements between the US and UK allow the US to
demand and receive the extradition of UK citizens without having to
show prima facie evidence that supports their suspicions. However,
the US insists that British requests for US citizens to face trial
in the UK are supported by evidence.
McKinnon earlier wrote to the DPP to confirm that he had
admitted to UK police in 2001 to contravening the Computer Misuse
Act. McKinnon also asked to be tried in the UK rather than the US,
where he faces up to 70 years in jail.
Sting told The Mail on Sunday, "It is a travesty of human rights
that Gary McKinnon finds himself in this dreadful situation.
"The US response in relation to the true nature of Gary's crime
is disproportionate in the extreme. Gary is even contemplating
suicide because of his fear of incarceration as a terrorist in a US
jail.
"The British government is prepared to hand over this vulnerable
man without reviewing the evidence."
Earlier, the government's former terrorist watchdog
Lord Carlile supported a local trial for McKinnon. London mayor
Boris Johnson also lent his weight to McKinnon's bid.
Cambridge University's Simon Baron-Cohen, a world authority on
autism, said McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, an
autistic condition, should be tried in the UK. McKinnon should be
treated not as a terrorist but as a man with a social disability,
he said.
Photo by Lionel Urman