New health evidence could save Gary McKinnon from extradition
By James Slack, Michael Seamark And James Chapman
Last updated at 8:54 AM on 9th October 2010
At risk: Gary McKinnon with his mother Janis Sharp - Home Secretary Theresa May wants to assure McKinnon is treated 'fairly'
Theresa May is to give Gary McKinnon a fresh opportunity to prove he is unfit to be extradited, the Daily Mail can reveal.
The Home Secretary is to call in a new medical expert to assess the 44-year-old computer hacker’s health amid fears he will kill himself if sent to stand trial in America.
Mrs May said she wanted to ensure Asperger’s sufferer Mr McKinnon was treated ‘fairly’, so was calling in an independent expert to look at the case anew.
She wants to break a legal deadlock which dates back eight years, while Home Office lawyers have repeatedly insisted there are insufficient grounds to halt his removal on health grounds.
They have rejected a string of medical reports saying that the stress of extradition would create a high risk of Mr McKinnon committing suicide.
But expert opinions obtained on behalf of his legal team have stated that because of his mental condition, suicide was an ‘almost certain inevitability’ should he be sent to America, where he faces up to 60 years in jail.
NHS consultant psychiatrist Professor Jeremy Turk said Mr McKinnon has a ‘fixed psychological conviction that he will kill himself in preference to being extradited’.
The Home Office was even presented with a warning that his condition is so grave he may have to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
During a series of court challenges by his lawyers, two High Court judges ruled in 2009 that they could not stop his extradition but declared that, if extradited, ‘his mental health will suffer and there are risks of worse, including suicide’.
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have publicly condemned plans to send Mr McKinnon to the U.S.
Last year, in opposition, the Prime Minister said that if Mr McKinnon had questions to answer there was ‘a clear argument to be made that he should answer them in a British court’.
Outspoken: Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have publicly condemned plans to send Mr McKinnon to the US
Mr McKinnon was on the verge of being extradited earlier this year after the then Home Secretary Alan Johnson ruled he should go.
The move was postponed after a judge found that it was ‘arguable’ that extraditing him could violate his human rights.
Then in May, shortly after becoming Home Secretary, Mrs May agreed to halt the case.
She has only very limited powers to intervene left under the terms of the hugely controversial Extradition Act 2003.
A succession of Labour Home Secretaries did have the power to step in, but all insisted that Mr McKinnon – who was searching for evidence of ‘little green men’ when he hacked into Nasa and Pentagon computers – should not be allowed to stand trial in Britain.
This was despite the fact that all the crimes took place from the bedroom of his north London flat.
As a result of the trail of decisions taken by past Home Secretaries, Mrs May could keep Mr McKinnon here only if the medical evidence proved conclusively he would suffer a breach of his human rights.
She recently announced a review of the Extradition Act to see if it is unfair, or if ministers need to be given extra powers to intervene to block the removal of a British citizen.
Explore more:
- People:
- Nick Clegg,
- Gary McKinnon,
- Alan Johnson,
- David Cameron
- Places:
- London,
- America
- Organisations:
- Pentagon,
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Saturday 9 October 2010
Gary McKinnon: New health evidence could save him from extradition | Mail Online
via dailymail.co.uk
