US allegations against UFO hacker Gary McKinnon were 'over baked'
US allegations against UFO hacker Gary McKinnon were 'over baked'
July 14, 2009
Mark Ballard
ComputerWeekly.com
US allegations about the severity of Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon's crimes were trumped up, a court heard today.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, McKinnon's barrister, argued that the Director of Public Prosecutions decided wrongly in February not to prosecute the hacker in the UK and so allow his extradition to face charges in the US instead.
Fitzgerald told the court that US allegations that McKinnon was guilty of "the worst crimes of the century" were over baked.
He submitted a file said to contain DPP evidence that demonstrated how the US did not have evidence to support these allegations.
The actual US indictments - as apposed to allegations - were for computer fraud and damages. These charges were comparable with those listed under the British Computer Misuse act, the court heard.
ADVERTISEMENT
McKinnon, who is accused of causing £475,000 worth of damage to computers by hacking into computer systems belonging to the Pentagon, Nasa and the US military from his home in North London, claims that under human rights law he has a right to be tried in the UK.
McKinnon hacked military systems in the search for surpressed evidence of UFOs. He found little evidence of other-world natives or technology, except for a spreadsheet that listed "non-terrestrial officers, ships' names and goods movements", and a picture of what he said was a UFO with a perfectly smooth surface.
Votes:14
Comments: 0