MacKinnon Extradition Blocked By UK Home Secretary 258
RockDoctor writes "BBC radio news (2012-10-16 GMT 13:00) is reporting that the Home Secretary has blocked the extradition of Gary MacKinnon to the U.S. for (alleged) computer hacking crimes. Paraphrasing: the Director of Public Prosecutions is going to have to decide if there is sufficient evidence for him to be tried in the UK for crimes committed in (or from) the UK.
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(Also at The Independent.)
David Cameron had no alternative ...... (Score:4, Interesting)
When he was in opposition, he scored a lot of political points by defending Gary MacKinnon, accusing the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown Labour Party of being US lapdogs.
If he hadn't blocked the extradition, it would have been a PR nightmare for him and the Conservatives.
Re:A pity (Score:5, Interesting)
Mrs May said the sole issue she had to consider was his human rights.
Have you been actually following the topic for the last 10 years?
I have.
Repeatedly the argument has been that if he is to face trial it should be in the UK.
Remember, though that legal cases are not argued by finding one good solid point like a debate, they are argued by covering everything to see what sticks. The fact that the current home secretary decided to latch on to one partiaspect of it does not detract to what has been the point for the last 10 years.
The McKinnon family has made no attempt to prevent him from standing trial.
They have only attempted to block his extradition.
Randomly quoting bits from a politician who has been in a position of power for only a tiny fraction of the case is completely irrelevent.
Re:A good decision (Score:4, Interesting)
Probably more so the "and friends", two of whom appear to have been doing nothing more than running a website providing information, something I was under the mistaken impression that the US defends vigorously as free speech, even when it is bigotted speech full of hatred. Hamza himself does appear to have been directly involved in crimes physically committed on American soil, so extradition is appropriate in his case. The remaining two friends are accused of involvement in attacks on the US embassy in Yemen, which is slightly more dubious, but still as physical attacks, and given that there is no reasonable expectation that Yemen will pursue appropriate prosecution, I don't think any comparison to MacKinnon's case is justified.