Judge OKs extradition of British man on US hacking charges

A British man accused of hacking into thousands of United States government computers can be extradited to the U.S. to face trial, a court in Britain ruled Friday.

There were gasps in the courtroom as Mr Love was read the ruling – that could see him spend 99 years in jail if found guilty in the U.S. trials.

The 31-year-old allegedly carried out the online attacks in 2012 and 2013.

His parents and a number of supporters gathered outside the court holding banners which said: “No extradition for Lauri Love” and filled the public benches to hear the ruling.

The FBI and Department of Justice allege that Love has been involved in hacking into various governmental agencies, including the US Army, NASA, the Federal Reserve and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The US government is “embarrassed” about failing to secure its computer systems, according to the lawyer of a man accused of hacking offences.

Mr Love’s Article 8 rights are clearly engaged.

“I have concluded that Mr. McKinnon’s extradition would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life, that the decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr. McKinnon’s human rights”, May said.

She said: “I am going to extradite Mr Love, what I mean by that is I’m sending his case to the Secretary of State”.

Mr Love has said he holds little hope of justice if he is extradited, and suggested a jail term in the United States could cause his health to deteriorate and would lead to a mental breakdown or suicide.

Outside court his solicitor Karen Todner said they were “extremely disappointed” with the decision, and said an appeal will be lodged.

Tempia said that the U.S. government “is not required to produce a prima facie case and it is not for me to determine if there is a case to answer”, before noting that “there is a strong public interest that the United Kingdom should honour its extradition treaty obligations with other countries”. After the ruling, Love’s father said: “I don’t believe it”.

Giving evidence then, Love said that due to the pressure of plea-bargaining in the U.S. justice system, more than 95% of cases did not end in trials but in guilty pleas. I don’t criticise the judge, she has sought to pass judgment on a law that is flawed.

“It is not right that my son can be taken away”.

The case is reminiscent of Gary McKinnon’s decade-long battle against extradition for hacking into Nasa’s computer systems to look for evidence of UFOs.

Sarah Harrison, director of the Courage Foundation, which runs Love’s defence fund and support campaign, said his legal team will apply to appeal against the ruling.

Finnish-British hacker Lauri Love. In 2012, then-Home Secretary Theresa May stepped in and blocked the extradition request.