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Terror law adviser backs 'hacker'
06.07.09
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The Home Office's adviser on terror laws has said that extraditing an autistic Briton accused of hacking into US military networks would be "cruel" when he could be prosecuted in the UK.
In a letter to Home Secretary Alan Johnson, Lord Carlile warned that allowing Gary McKinnon to be put before the US courts would be "disproportionate, unnecessary and avoidable".
Mr McKinnon, from Wood Green, north London, is seeking judicial review of the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's decision last October to order extradition after previous legal challenges failed.
The US government said Mr McKinnon was responsible for the "biggest military hack of all time", involving 97 government computers belonging to organisations including the US Navy and Nasa.
But his supporters say he acted through "naivety" as a result of having Asperger's - a form of autism which leads to obsessive behaviour - and should not be considered a criminal.
His lawyers argue there is evidence that the stress of extradition could result in psychosis and suicide because of his condition.
Former Liberal Democrat MP Lord Carlile's two-page letter was published in the Daily Mail, which is campaigning on behalf of the 43-year-old computer expert.
He said: "Mr McKinnon has had the shadow of extradition hanging over him for some five years already, during which time he could have been tried, sentenced and perhaps served any prison term, were he to have been prosecuted in the UK.
"Extraditing him now would be disproportionate, unnecessary and avoidable. The alternatives are not extradition or no prosecution: they are extradition versus domestic prosecution."
Lord Carlile, a QC and the Government's Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, previously wrote to former Home Secretary Ms Smith about the case and believes Mr Johnson does have the power to decide that Mr McKinnon be tried, and if necessary, sentenced in the UK.
