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Judge says extradition of Hacker may be unlawful

The home secretary may have acted unlawfully by pursuing the extradition of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon, a high court judge said last week.

McKinnon, an Asperger's sufferer who is facing a lengthy prison sentence in the US for breaching US military Nasa and Pentagon computers, raises "stark and simple issues", Mr Justice Mitting said. In a letter, the judge described medical evidence that McKinnon would be at high risk of suicide in an American jail as "as yet unchallenged and unqualified".

That evidence may require the home secretary "to refuse to surrender [McKinnon] to the government of the USA" Mitting said, in a letter yesterday. "It is arguable that the [home secretary's] decision was unlawful", the letter added.

Last July, the court rejected arguments that the extradition would violate McKinnon's rights, lawyers argued the prospect of up to 60 years' imprisonment in an American high security jail would cause mental harm because of his Asperger's syndrome and depressive illness.

The court was influenced by assurances sent to the home secretary by the US government, including a guarantee McKinnon would be assessed by doctors and psychologists in jail, and would get "appropriate medical care and treatment".

But the recent letter suggested that new evidence sent by McKinnon's team last October, including a report from consultant psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Turk, may have changed the legal position on extraditing McKinnon. Turk said the Briton was at "exceptionally high risk of self-harm and even suicide."

The Home Office rejected that evidence in November but the latest decision from the high court could make that position untenable, experts said.

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