wraggster
October 17th, 2012, 01:02
The home secretary, Theresa May, has blocked moves to extradite the British hacker, Gary McKinnon, to the US.
According to the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19968973), the block came after McKinnon’s family argued that he was ‘seriously ill’ due to Asperger’s Syndrome and that there was a risk of suicide if he was forced to relocate to the US.
This represents the first time that a British home secretary has blocked an extradition to the United States, and the move was welcomed by human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, who said: “It is a great day for compassion and common sense.”
However the block has been criticised by Labour’s former home secretary, Alan Johnson, who stated that the decision was “in [the Conservative] party's best interests but it's not in the best interests of this country.”
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/gary-mckinnon-extradition-blocked/029397
According to the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19968973), the block came after McKinnon’s family argued that he was ‘seriously ill’ due to Asperger’s Syndrome and that there was a risk of suicide if he was forced to relocate to the US.
This represents the first time that a British home secretary has blocked an extradition to the United States, and the move was welcomed by human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti, who said: “It is a great day for compassion and common sense.”
However the block has been criticised by Labour’s former home secretary, Alan Johnson, who stated that the decision was “in [the Conservative] party's best interests but it's not in the best interests of this country.”
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/gary-mckinnon-extradition-blocked/029397