NASA hacker extradition goes to Brit Highest court Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:58:01 -0500 (CDT) http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39290029,00.htm ZDNet UK : 15 Oct 2007 17:51 BST Gary McKinnon, the Briton who has admitted hacking into Nasa's computer systems, has been given leave to appeal against extradition to the US. McKinnon was granted leave on Thursday to appeal to the Law Lords, a group of senior UK judges, on the grounds of the nature of plea agreement discussions with representatives of the US authorities. His appeal will be heard "sometime in the New Year", according to his solicitors, Kaim Todner. The US government wishes to try McKinnon on charges of unauthorised access to Nasa's systems. According to Kaim Todner, during the plea bargaining process between November 2002 and April 2003, US government representatives attempted to coerce McKinnon so he would not oppose extradition proceedings. "The US representatives promised [McKinnon] a greatly reduced sentence and that they would facilitate repatriation [if McKinnon co-operated], but that if he opposes they would throw the book at him," said Jeff Anderson, assistant to McKinnon's solicitor. "They said that were he found guilty, he would be put in a super-maximum security facility in Colorado, and spend much of his time in solitary confinement. They told him he would fry." Anderson said that the US authorities had later denied this claim. ########### previous stuff -- LORDS TO CONSIDER NASA HACKER APPEAL http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39288345,00.htm ZDNet UK 01 Aug 2007 1 Gary McKinnon, the Briton who has admitted hacking into Nasa's computer systems, may be able to appeal to the House of Lords against his extradition to the US. According to a firm of solicitors acting on behalf McKinnon, the law lords will consider whether to grant leave to appeal to the House of Lords. "There's been a bit of ambiguity about what they agreed to, but yesterday the House of Lords let us know they are considering whether to take the case," said Jeff Anderson, assistant to McKinnon's solicitor, on Wednesday. "They are still considering the case, and haven't concretely agreed to a hearing. They have confirmed a committee hearing to discuss whether they will hear the case." McKinnon lost his Court of Appeal case in April, but his lawyers said at the time that the judges in the appeal court "definitely left the door open" for a further appeal to the law lords. At the time, the Court of Appeal took a dim view of alleged coercion applied to McKinnon by US prosecutors, saying that it "viewed with a degree of distaste the way in which the American authorities are alleged to have approached the plea bargain negotiations" with McKinnon. According to McKinnon and his counsel, during the plea bargaining negotiations, a US member of the prosecution team "threatened" McKinnon that, if he did not agree to the bargain offered, the prosecutors would push for the highest possible penalties and that he would be "turned over to New Jersey authorities to see him fry". McKinnon's defence further alleged that the US said that, if he did not agree to the deal, there would be no chance of him serving his sentence in the UK near his friends and family. McKinnon learnt on Tuesday that the law lords have agreed to listen to arguments by McKinnon's defence that the US authorities "acted in an oppressive and arbitrary manner" during the plea bargaining, according to Anderson. McKinnon's hopes of avoiding extradition through proceedings in the UK now almost certainly rest on the outcome of the House of Lords appeal, said Anderson. "This probably is the end of the road in the UK. If things don't go Gary's way in the House of Lords, there's not really another avenue in the UK," he said. If the Lords appeal fails, the European Court of Human Rights "could be a place to apply", said Anderson. While he has accepted that he hacked into US government sites, McKinnon has consistently denied causing serious damage, maintaining that he was searching for evidence of UFOs. According to McKinnon's friends, he was taken ill on 14 February with heart palpitations due to stress. Anderson confirmed that McKinnon had been "much better since" although he was still "under huge amounts of stress". ####### Gary McKinnon's fight to avoid extradition to the US to face hacking charges continues, after an unsigned note from the US Embassy was produced in court on Wednesday [12 Apr 2006]