Home secretary braced for fresh 'UFO hacker' talks
Alan Johnson to hold talks with senior MPs over looming extradition of Gary McKinnon
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Home secretary Alan Johnson will tomorrow hold talks with MPs representing the three main parties over the impending extradition of Gary McKinnon on computer hacking charges.
The 43-year-old, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, has faced a series of legal setbacks in his bid to avoid being extradited.
He claims he was looking for information on UFOs when he hacked into Pentagon computers in the weeks after the September 11th 2001 attacks, but US officials accuse him of causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage and want to put him on trial.
Last month his mother issued another direct appeal to Barack Obama not to extradite him.
"Please Obama," Janis Sharp said fighting back tears. "Don't let the first person ever extradited for computer misuse to be a guy with Asperger's who was hunting for UFOs - a really good gentle guy who's never hurt anyone and who would never hurt anyone. Please stop this extradition."
The Home Office is playing down Wednesday's meeting, which will see Mr Johnson hold talks with Labour's Michael Meacher, Conservative David Davis and the Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne.
Speaking at the same protest outside the US embassy as Ms Sharp, Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti told politics.co.uk: "You've got to understand that being taken from your home, your family, your lawyers and your friends and supporters, taken off to the other side of the world, to a place where you will be a stranger, where you will be a fugitive offender, where you will be locked up pending trial - that's a punishment in itself.
"Where the interests of justice mean that somebody should be tried here at home, that's what should happen."