http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8381961.stm

Supporters make the point that Gary McKinnon has Asperger's syndrome

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon faces being tried in the US after requests to block his extradition were refused, the Home Office has confirmed.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson told Mr McKinnon's family he could not block the move on medical grounds.

Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon, 43, who has Asperger's syndrome, is accused of breaking into US military computers. He says he was seeking UFO evidence.

Now of Wood Green, north London, he faces 60 years in prison if convicted.

Mr Johnson said he had carefully considered the representations but had concluded that sending Mr McKinnon to the US would not breach his human rights.

As such, he had no discretion to block the extradition.

It's disgusting - Gary has been in a heightened state of terror for almost eight years. Janis Sharp, Mr McKinnon's mother

"Due to legitimate concerns over Mr McKinnon's health, we have sought and received assurances from the United States authorities that his needs will be met," he said.

Mr McKinnon admits hacking into 97 US government computers, including Nasa's and Pentagon's, during 2001 and 2002.

He has told the BBC he was on a "moral crusade" to prove US intelligence had found an alien craft run on clean fuel.

His mother Janis Sharp told the BBC she was "devastated" by the news.

"It's a disgusting decision. Gary has been in a heightened state of terror for almost eight years. To allow this to happen to a human being who's suicidal through Asperger's... is wrong."

She said she was not comforted by the home secretary's advice that her son would not be held in a "supermax" jail, which hold the highest-security prisoners.

Judicial review

Their solicitor Karen Todner said they had seven days to put a case for judicial review and that she hoped that would be heard before Christmas.

If that failed, they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, she added.

Mr McKinnon has been the focus of a campaign to prevent his extradition. Earlier this month, the Commons' Home Affairs Committee said the move should be halted owing to his "precarious state of mental health".

They concluded there was a "serious lack of equality" in the way the extradition treaty deals with UK citizens compared with US citizens.

Considering how rough they're being with the intended sentence...

Maybe they DID find a UFO with clean fuel?

Damn, he should have just become a banker and steal billions from taxpayers. Then he'd get a bonus.

Now seriously, that seems way too harsh of a sentence... That alone would be reason not to extradite him.

I know, 60 years in jail for a guy who has a medical condition and that they cant prove did any damage or anything, apparently (according to BBC news channel) if he had been tried here, he would have been given 6 months community service...not to mention of course that the extradition treaty essentialy allows the US to extradite people from the UK, but not vice versa.

Yeah I mean... why is it that no country in its right mind would extradite one of their citizens to a death penalty sentence in a third world country, yet a 60 year jail term (which is basically a life sentence) is OK??

That's a max sentence.  It's not like he'll actually get that.

Though, what do you think is an acceptable punishment for breaking into military computers that hold technological secrets and troop placement information?

As far as i know, hacking into a computer makes it easier to hack into by other people.  So even if the guy had an insane reason for doing so... he greatly put at risk troops and military secrets.

Most likely he'll get whatever time he gets to be served in a US or UK mental institution where he is barred from a computer or needs to be monitered while using one.

Hacking into a computer doesn't necessarily make it more vulnerable. That's only the case if the hacker installs other backdoors after breaking in.

If the guy was doing it to steal those secrets or endanger any lives, it's a different matter. That doesn't seem anywhere near reality here. If it wasn't the intention and it didn't happen, I don't think it justifies such a harsh sentence.

I hope you're right on the sentence though!

Breaking into military computers that hold technological secrets and troop placement information to find evidence of a UFO, by a guy with Asperger Syndrome.

He's not exactly going to sell US Military tactics to Al-Qaeda, is he?

The US government says his hacking cost the US government $700,000 to fix.  So clearly he did something to those 90+ computers he hacked into to make them more vulnerable.

Outside that.  The 60 years is a "Max" sentence.  Why he did what he did, isn't relevent until sentencing.

Doesn't your country have "Max terms" for something... a limit to which someone can server for a certain crime?

That's not true.

Also the "6 months community service" is more or less a lie.  It would be that way only because he didn't break into UK government computers.