31-07-09 Hacker loses extradition appeal

UK hacker Gary McKinnon has lost his latest High Court bid to avoid extradition to the United States.US authorities want to try the 43-year-old,from Wood Green,north London,for breaking into US military and Nasa computers in 2001 and 2002.Mr McKinnon admits hacking,but denies it was malicious or that he caused damage costing $800,000 (£487,000).He had challenged refusals by the home secretary and director of public prosecutions to try him in the UK.Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon had asked the court to rule on whether the CPS was right to say he could not be prosecuted in the UK,and and also whether his Asperger's Syndrome meant he could not be extradited to the US.He faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted in the US of what prosecutors have called "the biggest military computer hack of all time".Ahead of the decision,his mother,Janis Sharp,told BBC Radio 4's Today programme they were "fighting for Gary's life".She said: "If you are talking about a 60-year sentence, if he did 30 years I would never see him again because I'd be dead. "I'm obsessed with saving Gary because I'm his mother." She said Asperger's sufferers "don't understand many social rules,they don't understand the consequences of their actions"."Gary wouldn't be thinking of the consequences,he was thinking there's suppressed information here about UFO technology - he was obsessed with it," she added.In total,Mr McKinnon accessed 97 government computers belonging to organisations including the US Navy and Nasa.He has always insisted he was looking for classified documents on UFOs which he believed the US authorities had suppressed.In February the Crown Prosecution Service refused to bring charges against Mr McKinnon in the UK.The decision followed a ruling last October by then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to allow his extradition.Mr McKinnon has already appealed unsuccessfully to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights and his latest judicial reviews in the High Court are likely to be his last chance.His lawyers say the authorities have not given proper consideration to his Asperger's Syndrome,which could have "disastrous consequences," including suicide,if he was to be extradited.They argued he was "eccentric" rather than malicious and should be tried on lesser charges in the UK to protect his mental health

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