Lawyer: Extraditing UK hacker would violate rights

[chloe]

LONDON (AP) - Lawyers for a British man accused of hacking into U.S. military computers say sending him to the United States would violate his rights because he is autistic and would suffer unnecessarily if he were extradited.

U.S. prosecutors say 43-year-old Gary McKinnon broke into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the military soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. McKinnon says he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the High Court Tuesday that sending McKinnon to the U.S. carried "an avoidable and unnecessary risk of serious psychological suffering."

At an earlier hearing, McKinnon's lawyers argued that he should not be extradited because he has a form of autism. Judges are due to rule on both points later this month.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=235&sid=6758561

kinda scary that someone handicapped with autism can break into supposedly highly secure or classified government computers !

[Gaffer]

Makes me go hmmm. He's supposed to be autistic, he was looking for evidence on UFO's. He broke into the systems 8 years ago. And this is just now coming to light?

If he's autistic the only thing they have to do is keep him away from computers.