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26 May 2010
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has admitted that he may not have the power to stop Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon being extradited to the US.
McKinnon was recently given some hope when home secretary Theresa May said that she wanted more time to look at the case.
However, Clegg said in a BBC Radio interview yesterday that it might be too late to undo the process, which is well underway.
The Lib Dem leader was reminded during the interview by presenter Nicky Campbell that he had said before the election that there was no reason the case should be tried in the US, and that "the life of a vulnerable man is on the line ".
When asked whether he was now going to "save the life of this vulnerable young man", Clegg replied that it was not as easy as it had seemed.
"What I haven't got the power to do, neither has the home secretary [nor] the prime minister, is to completely reverse and undo certain legal aspects of this [case]," Clegg said.
"That, of course, you wouldn't want politicians to do. That's what we are looking at at the moment. It's legally very complex."
McKinnon suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, and is thought to be close to suicide.
Clegg saw the situation in a different light in August last year in an editorial for the Daily Mail.
"If he boards the plane to the US, it is almost certain he will never set foot on British soil again, doomed to pass the rest of his days in shackles on a foreign shore. This is nothing short of a disgrace," he wrote.
"It would be fair and it would be right to try Mr McKinnon in Britain. But the clock is ticking. The prime minister [Gordon Brown] just needs to pick up the phone to make this prosecution happen. I urge him to do so, before it is too late."
Neill Blundell, a partner at international law firm Eversheds, pointed out that the extradition process is now at an advanced stage.
"The secretary of state has powers to prevent an extradition but only in very limited cases, which include national security grounds and where the death penalty would be imposed," he said.
"The Extradition Act does not give the secretary of state powers to prevent an extradition on purely humanitarian grounds, such as a fear of suicide by the person concerned."
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Do you agree?
Shame on you, Mr Clegg.
Well, Bert. Actually, Clegg knows perfectly well that the government not only have discretion to intervene, but a legal obligation. This question was decided unequivocally last year, as Clegg is well aware and as as the Select Committee, Matrix Chambers, and Liberty all publicly concluded. It is also stated in black-and-white in the text of the extradition treaty. Clegg's recent statement is an obvious and knowing falsehood. Very worrying indeed for anyone stupid enough to think the man actually had some integrity.
Posted by: Sophia 28 May 2010
Punishment for autistic behaviour...
Would you punish a person for obsessive compulsive behaviour or would you attempt first to ensure that their circumstances meant they could not do harm to themselves or others? McKinnon has a condition that means he becomes very obsessed, in this case with UFOs. He is intelligent, sentient, obviously very capable, but his judgement and understanding of what is socially acceptable is skewed and at best incomplete. There is a difference between malicious behaviour and innocent behaviour that is unintentionally harmful. How many children have caused fires, not because they wanted to deliberately but because their fascination for striking matches stopped them thinking beyond what they were doing to the consequences? If the US authorities have any compassion at-all they'll offer McKinnon clemency and ask him to show exactly how he managed to circumvent their security. I don't doubt they are angry and probably very embarrassed at the intrusion, and of course it is serious stuff under normal circumstances and severely punishable (as a deterrent), but they need to understand that they are pursuing someone who can't fit all of the pieces of the world together into a coherent picture. Compassion and understanding is required, and the press need to stop stirring up a witch hunt. It is totally inappropriate. When I see some of the reports it makes me wonder exactly who it is that is mentally challenged. The real malicious hackers financed by crime are still out there persistently hammering at our firewalls. They are the ones to aim for, not the soft targets.
Posted by: David Lambert 28 May 2010
What a muppet
It's easy isn't it, Clegg, to blag on about things that you know nothing about when you're in opposition? It's very differnt when you are put into a position of delivering on your own promises eh?
Posted by: Bert 27 May 2010
Clegg may be 'powerless' to halt McKinnon extradition
An extradition process that works only in favour of the Americans should be scrapped until it works both ways. He should not be sent to America.
Posted by: John Holmes 27 May 2010
yellow belly clegg
WOW we can keep a terrorist cos he might get hurt in his own country BUT we can't tell the yanks to do one!!!!! I say give McKinnon a job in our secret service and let him hack away for us. We are always keen to 'support' other countries but they never ever would do the same for us. It's time this country got real and 'do unto others as they do unto us'
Posted by: anne jarvis 27 May 2010
Words are cheap
Have a go at Brown and fish for votes in the run up to an election, never thinking he would be in a position to do something, now he is in that postion, result, nothing.
Posted by: Michael 26 May 2010