The ongoing saga surrounding the extradition of British ‘UFO Hacker’ Gary McKinnon has taken another twist, with McKinnon being granted permission to take his case to the House of Lords:
Gary McKinnon was arrested in 2002 after US prosecutors charged him with illegally accessing government computers – including Pentagon, US army, navy and NASA systems – causing $700,000 worth of damage.
A district court ruled in May 2006 that he should be extradited, a decision upheld at London’s High Court in April this year. But on Monday, three of Britain’s top judges gave McKinnon permission to take his case to the House of Lords.
McKinnon’s lawyers argue that sending him to the US would breach his human rights, be an abuse of the English court process and should be barred as his extradition was sought “for the purpose of prosecuting him on account of his nationality or political opinions”.
McKinnon was definitely in the wrong, and an idiot if he thought this wasn’t going to come back and bite him. But I really don’t see his case as one that would warrant extradition…and I’d imagine he’s already lost ten years of his life through the pure stress of what has been happening. Perhaps it’s time for it all to go away?
