Mum of UK hacker with Asperger's wants new Prime Minister to stop extradition to USA

From The Daily Mail:

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon (pictured) was May 12 hoping the new Government would honour its promises and stop his controversial extradition.

Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have publicly condemned plans to send the Asperger's sufferer to the U.S. - where he faces up to 60 years in jail - under a flawed treaty.

His family is urging the new Prime Minister and his deputy to keep their word and put an immediate end to their six-year ordeal.

Gary's mother Janis Sharp (pictured) May 12 wrote to Mr Clegg asking the coalition government to intervene.

She said: 'He has been one of Gary's most passionate and outspoken supporters and always said he would not extradite him.

'It would be a great and honourable start for them and it will show the public that we have finally got politicians who will stand up for justice and civil liberties.'
A full judicial review of former home secretary Alan Johnson's refusal to stop Gary's extradition will be heard this month.

But Gary's solicitor Karen Todner plans to formally ask Mr Johnson's successor, Theresa May, to immediately reconsider the position.

She was one of almost 160 Tory MPs who voted last year for an immediate review and reform of the 2003 Extradition Act between the UK and U.S., but the Commons motion was defeated by Labour MPs.

Gary's family were given hope in January when a High Court judge ruled that Mr Johnson may have acted unlawfully by discounting fresh medical evidence that, because of his mental condition, suicide was an 'almost certain inevitability' should Gary be sent to the U.S.

But despite the report, Mr Johnson ruled that extraditing Gary would not breach the Human Rights Act.

Gary has been living with the threat of extradition since his arrest for hacking into 97 Nasa and Pentagon computers in 2001 and 2002 looking for evidence of 'little green men'.

Tory and Lib Dem politicians have been outspoken in their support of Gary, whose case has been supported by a Daily Mail campaign since last July.

Last year, Mr Cameron said: 'Gary McKinnon is a vulnerable young man and I see no compassion in sending him thousands of miles away from his home and loved ones to face trial.

'If he has questions to answer, there is a clear argument to be made that he should answer them in a British court.'

Mr Clegg will be under huge pressure to step in and stop the extradition given his unequivocal public support.

Writing in the Mail last July, Mr Clegg said extraditing Gary would be a 'travesty of justice'.

'Gary McKinnon has been hung out to dry by a British government desperate to appease its American counterparts,' he wrote.

'Under British hacking laws he could still face up to five years in prison. Gordon Brown must give his personal guarantee that Gary McKinnon will be tried in Britain.

'Leaving him to rot on the other side of the Atlantic is nothing short of cruel.'

Dominic Grieve, appointed Attorney General yesterday, is likely to play a key role in any redrawing of the U.S.-UK extradition treaty.

While Mr Grieve was Tory justice spokesman last year, he said: 'Ministers must make every effort to see justice done for Gary McKinnon.'