Gary McKinnon, the British computer hacker who cracked open the Pentagon and NASA systems in the US, has lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and could face immediate extradition to the US to stand trial.
His lawyers indicated on Thursday night that they were urging the UK home secretary to allow McKinnon to stand trial in the UK as he had recently been diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.
McKinnon, 42, from Bounds Green, north London, who has been described in the US as the biggest military hacker of all time, faces a series of charges in the US in connection with hacking activities that took place nearly 10 years ago. He is alleged to have broken into 53 US Army, 26 US Navy and 16 NASA computer systems and to have caused US$700,000 in damage to the systems, in which he left disparaging messages about their security arrangements.
LOST APPEAL
He lost his appeal against extradition in the UK House of Lords, the UK’s highest court of appeal, following a hearing last month in which it was argued that if he were to stand trial, it should be in the UK. He was granted a temporary stay by the European court on Aug. 12 after applying to it for “interim relief.” The temporary stay was lifted on Thursday.
“The offenses for which our client’s extradition is sought were committed on British soil and we maintain that any prosecution of our client ought therefore to be carried out by the appropriate British authorities,” his lawyer, Karen Todner, said on Thursday. “Our client faces the prospect of prosecution and imprisonment thousands of miles away from his family in a country in which he has never set foot.”
‘WORRYING TREND’
Todner added: “Our client’s case highlights a worrying trend where UK citizens are at the mercy of the ever-increasing tendency of overseas prosecutors to extend their jurisdiction to crimes allegedly committed in this country.”
As McKinnon had been diagnosed as suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, she was writing to UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, inviting a prosecution in this country.
James Welch, legal director of Liberty, said: “It is a shame that the court of human rights will allow his extradition even as they consider whether US extradition measures were fair.”
McKinnon, 42, was inspired as a teenager in 1983 by the film WarGames, in which a teenager hacks into the Pentagon system. He started hacking into US military and space computer systems because he believed they contained information about UFOs.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS