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Gary McKinnon, also known as Solo (born in Glasgow in 1966), is a British hacker facing extradition to the United States to face charges of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time". Following legal hearings in the UK it was decided in July 2006 that he should be to extradited to the US. In February 2007 his lawyers argued against the ruling in an appeal to the High Court in London, which was turned down on April 3. On July 31, 2007 the House of Lords agreed to hear the appeal and on June 17, 2008 the Law Lords began hearing the case. This Judgement was delivered on July 30, 2008 with the Law Lords judging that Gary McKinnon could be extradited to the United States. He was given two weeks to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights before extradition, but the Court has halted the extradition for an additional two weeks to allow time hear his appeal on August 28. The systems administrator is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002. The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force.
HumanRightsDefence condemns his extradition. If you would like to petition against his extradition and for a fair legal process, please sign and send the following letter on behalf of HumanRightsDefence to the European Court of Human Rights. A specific address can be found below. Honourables Members of the European Court of Human Rights,
Human Rights Defence is writing in order to ask for your support in the case of Mr Gary McKinnon. His case was submitted to your considerations and is in waiting of your decision to stop his extradition to the United States of America.
Mr Mackinnon was arrested in the United Kingdom, accused of commited crimes against the government of United States of America:
"Gary McKinnon, 39, is accused of hacking into 97 US government computers between February 2001 and March 2002, causing damage estimated at £370,000 (...omissis) is also accused of deleting files and logs from computers.
London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court heard allegations that Mr McKinnon accessed 53 US Army computers, 26 US Navy computers, 16 Nasa computers, one US Department of Defence computer and one US Air Force computer(BBC NEWS, 27th of July 2008)."
The Extradition Treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of United States of America does not require specifying evidence in cases of extradition. Furthermore, we don't see a clear reciprocity of the two legal systems. A crime of this nature can constitute a serious offence within the United States; this would probably not be the case in the United Kingdom. Why extradite someone that might (in the United Kingdom) be charged with a minor offence to a US where the crime is considered more grave.
We are calling for a stop of the extradition and for a fair proportionality of the punishment according to what he has done.
It is clear that the acts of Mr McKinnon are distant to the serious crimes such as homicide and his action does not fit within the definition of terrorism. We cannot see that his actions had the intention to damage; if damage was done, nothing has been proven or presented. We don't see the Hacker curiosity within a system as a crime if there is no intention to damage or commit crime.
Our organisation has more than once been targeted by Hackers; we do not consider this a serious crime, more a nuisance and a notice that we need to secure our system better.
We call for rationality and the respect of a fair process for Mr Mackinnon; therefore we respectfully ask you to make the right decision and give Mr Mackinnon the justice that he previously has been denied.
Yours sincerely, <Signature> How to go about sending the petition Via Email - Select the petition letter in the above box using your mouse and/or keyboard.Right click on the selected area and select "copy" from the appearing menu.
- Open your favourite email client or log into your webmail account. Chose to compose a new email, then right-click and paste the selected text into the email
- Sign your name at the bottom of the email
- Send the email to ECHRvisitors@echr.coe.int
Via Postal Service - Select the petition letter in the above box using your mouse and/or keyboard. Print the selected text.
- Open your favourite email client or log into your webmail account. Chose to compose a new email, then right-click and paste the selected text into the email
- Sign your name at the bottom of the email
- Send the letter to the following postal address:
European Court of Human Rights
Council of Europe
67075 Strasbourg-Cedex
France
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