Unless you feel in a very nasty mood, is hard not to feel sorry for Gary McKinnon (above) who hacked into Pentagon military computers looking for evidence of UFO's. Gary has just lost a final European Court appeal against extradition to the US and now faces up to 70 years in a US prison. If he had been tried for the same offences in Britain, lawyers estimate he might have got six months.
Now he is being used as an example by US prosecutors, one of whom has been quoted in the media saying they want Gary to "fry", although up to now hacking offences do not receive the death penalty in the US.
It is unlikely the vindictive Americans will give Gary the full seventy years, if only because it might cause bad PR and make him an Internet martyr. On the other hand they want to make an example of him. So unless something good happens, which is rare in such cases, poor Gary McKinnon will have to do big mac time.
It seems Gary McKinnon's best hope now is that the Aliens invade, or that a "final final" appeal to the Home Secretary for a trial in Britain on health grounds might work. Gary has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and has already been punished with six years of bail restrictions and all the stress of facing an unjust extradition.
Long term very harmless
Everyone's best hope is that Gary McKinnon is not forgotten, and that he is given a fair trial under the laws of his own country, which is Britain.
If unfair extraditions like this can go ahead unchallenged then anyone can be 'disappeared' into the American gulag prison system, to join over two million other victims of the booming US Prison Industry. They would lock up the whole planet for the right price.
Due to over crowding in British prisons the government could even start leasing cells in prisons in Texas where they do a very cheap rate, especially for lifers; and long term very harmless people like Gary McKinnon.
If the American's were to practice real justice in this case they would give Gary McKinnon a job in internet security.
• Why Did The UK Government Fail To Back Gary McKinnon?
• Garry McKinnon Support Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment