Political support builds for Nasa hacker
Published: 03 Aug 2009 17:41 BST
Amid a surge in political support for Gary McKinnon, the deputy prime minister has said the government will press for a British prison stay for the self-confessed hacker.
Harriet Harman told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the UK would seek for McKinnon to be repatriated if he is found guilty of hacking military networks by a US court.
"If he is found guilty, then obviously straight away we will seek for him to serve any prison sentence — if he is sentenced to prison — back in this country," said Harman.
While Harman said McKinnon should be extradited to face charges of hacking 97 US military systems, Welsh secretary Peter Hain said McKinnon, who is accused by US prosecutors of the "biggest military hack of all time", should be tried on British soil.
Cabinet member Hain told the BBC Radio Four programme Any Questions on Friday that while the case was a matter for the courts, he would have preferred the director of public prosecutions to opt to try McKinnon in the UK.
"He was sitting in his bedroom... as a kind of computer geek zapping the American defence system," said Hain. "Therefore he was committing an offence on British soil."
Hain said he did not think the home secretary or the cabinet should intervene in the extradition process, but wished McKinnon "good luck".
Hain added that the treaty the UK has with the US was imbalanced. "There is another issue here, and that is that the extradition treaty is not reciprocal," said Hain. He noted that the UK did not require the same burden of proof as the US to extradite UK citizens.
Home secretary Alan Johnson said on Friday that he would not step in to halt the extradition, even though the home secretary has the power to do so.
"It would be illegal for me to stop the extradition of Gary McKinnon," said Johnson. "Mr McKinnon is accused of serious crimes, and the US has a lawful right to seek his extradition, as we do when we wish to prosecute people who break our laws."
London mayor Boris Johnson, who has already spoken out in favour of London resident McKinnon, on Monday lent his support again.
"Leave aside, for a moment, the morality of exporting the Asperger's sufferer for trial in America," Johnson wrote in a blog post which was also published in the Daily Telegraph on Monday. "Can I ask, what is the point of having a trial at all? I simply do not understand what proposition is to be so expensively tested in this American courtroom."
Tory leader David Cameron also supported the hacker on Friday, saying a court's decision to extradite him showed "no compassion".
McKinnon lost a bid to avoid being sent to the US on Friday. Karen Todner, his solicitor, told ZDNet UK that if necessary, his legal team would take his appeal to the newly formed UK supreme court.
The US government has accused McKinnon of breaking into military computers in 2001 and 2002, and causing over £700,000 worth of damage. McKinnon has never denied the hacks, but does deny causing any harm. Due to the nature of the extradition treaty between the US and the UK, US prosecutors have not had to offer any proof that McKinnon caused any damage, or that he accessed any computers.
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