UFO Hacker Gary Mckinnon suicidal over health

Author:

Mark Ballard

Posted:

15:28 11 Nov 2009

Protracted extradition proceedings have turned UFO hacker Gary McKinnon into a nervous wreck who is on medication to quell his suicidal tendencies, his mother, Janis Sharp, told MPs yesterday.

In the light of Gary McKinnon's hearings, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has questioned whether the Human Rights Act is fit for purpose.

The Human Rights Act is so exacting that Gary McKinnon's risk of suicide might not be sufficient to engage its protections and prevent his extradition.

The
threat of extradition was having a detrimental effect on McKinnon's
mental health, said Janis Sharp, McKinnon's campaigning mother.

She
told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee: "It has ruined Gary's
life… it has destroyed him. If the door goes, he jumps. If someone
touches him, he jumps. He has incredible chest pains every morning."

McKinnon, who has Asperger's Syndrome,
became suicidal last month after the High Court threw out his appeal
against extradition on human rights grounds. He was put on medication.
"He would rather be dead than be extradited, that's the reality," Sharp
said.

Mark Lever, head of the National Autistic Society,
told MPs that extradition, by taking an Aspergic far from familiar
surroundings and family, could have a severe effect on their mental
health.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson
told the same committee that he was reviewing whether McKinnon's
deteriorating health warranted the government's intervention in his
extradition on the grounds that it breached his human rights.

The
High Court threw out McKinnon's last legal challenge to extradition on
the same grounds, because the threshold of pain after which the Human
Rights Act (HRA) is engaged was so high that, even were someone
extradited in full knowledge that it would lead to their likely death,
it could not intervene unless someone faced a prosecuting authority
that actually intended to treat them inhumanely.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP told Computer Weekly after the meeting that it must be asked whether the HRA threshold was set too high.

Home
Secretary Alan Johnson reminded the committee how the US had assured
McKinnon's Aspergic vulnerabilities would be accommodated in trial and
prison.

This had been enough to persuade the High Court that the
HRA threshold had not been reached. Moreover, the court had repeated
claims that evidence of the tragic effect of removal and incarceration
on Aspergics was too patchy to count.

The National Autistic Society's Mark Lever told the committee that researchers were examining the matter.

Anecdotal evidence suggested a disproportionate number of those in prison had Asperger's Syndrome. Some academics assert that the entire criminal justice system, from arrest to incarceration, is unfair to autistics.

These
wider matters were not put to or raised by the Home Secretary. He was
asked to explain why he had not intervened in McKinnon's case. He said
the 2003 Extradition Act had been designed to prevent Home Secretaries
exercising their political or personal discretion.

"I don't think these decisions should be made on whether someone has a popular newspaper in favour of them or whether famous pop stars are making records about them," he said. "This is about justice, not about popular causes."

For
the same reason, Johnson has refused to meet with McKinnon's mother.
Johnson has also refused to make representations to the US government
for clemency in McKinnon's case, which his supporters believe is a
trifling matter that has dragged on too long to the tragic detriment of
a vulnerable man.

For the same reason, Johnson told the
committee, he agreed with the decision of the High Court, the Director
of Public Prosecutions and US Department of Justice, on the matter of
whether McKinnon could be tried in the UK.

Their preference for
a US trial on the basis of cost precluded any consideration of
McKinnon's human rights, the High Court heard in the summer.

Only
justice could intervene, Johnson asserted. He gave no indication that
the law as it stands might be failing McKinnon and other Aspergics,
whose condition was yet poorly understood.

Gary McKinnon – an interactive timeline:

Gary McKinnon, Chrissie Hynde and Janis Sharp talk to ITN:

Read more about Gary McKinnon:

Gary McKinnon broke into 73,000 US government computers, Lords told >>

US allegations against UFO hacker Gary McKinnon were 'over baked' >>

Gary McKinnon: UK IT pros believe he should stay in the UK >>

Gary McKinnon loses case to avoid extradition, could face 60 years in jail >>

Hacker Gary McKinnon gets stay of execution >>