McKinnon Loses High Court Battle Against Extradition

Gary McKinnon, the British hacker who has admitted to hacking into Pentagon and Nasa systems to search for evidence of UFOs, has today lost his legal battle in the High Court against extradition to the United States.

McKinnon is reportedly facing up to 60 years in jail in the US after he was indicted in late 2002 for hacking into military computers between February 2001 and March 2002. The US alleged his hacking caused it to shut down critical systems and networks in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and caused damages of approximately £435,000.

In July 2006 the British government agreed that McKinnon would be extradited to the United States, but McKinnon and his family launched a determined and lengthy legal battle to keep him in the UK. His campaign has even managed to enlist the support of a number of Members of Parliament (MPs) and celebrities such as Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and Sting.

Despite this support, in July this year McKinnon lost a High Court appeal against extradition to the US, despite his diagnosis with the neurological disorder Asperger Syndrome. And in a further blow today, the High Court has now ruled that McKinnon cannot appeal against his extradition to be tried in the US.

The only legal option now open to McKinnon is to try and take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. But this seems a faint hope considering the European Court refused to stop his extradition back in August 2008.

McKinnon’s legal team apparently has two weeks to consider its options.