April 3rd, 2007
British court denies extradition for UK hacker who broke into US military computers
The British High Court rejected hacker Gary McKinnon's bid to fight extradition for pulling off the "biggest military computer hack of all time," the BBC reports. He's accused of breaking into 97 US military and NASA computers.
McKinnon argued that in the US he would face an unknown time in prison with no liklihood of bail, that he would serve some 45 years in jail and wouldn't be allowed to serve part of the time in the UK.
The Court said it could find no basis for denying extradition, which was approved by Home Secretary John Reid.
McKinnon's lawyer, Ben Cooper, said he make an appeal now to the House of Lords.
Speaking later, solicitor Jeffrey Anderson said alleged threats by US authorities, including one from New Jersey prosecutors that Mr McKinnon "would fry", would be among issues raised.
That had been a "chilling and intimidating" reference to capital punishment by the electric chair, he added. It now looked as though the US would try to prosecute Mr McKinnon as a cyber-terrorist, Mr Anderson said.
McKinnon never denied that he broke into the computers, claiming he was just a curious hacker taking advantage of the military's lax security.
