The Home Secretary Theresa May will decide on the fate of Briton Gary McKinnon in October, as he faces extradition to the US on computer hacking charges, reports the BBC.
Mr McKinnon, 46, has admitted hacking computers belonging to the US military and now faces charges for which he could face up to 60 years in prison.
Mr McKinnon is a computer systems administrator born in Glasgow but living in North London. In 2002 he was accused by the US Government of conducting the biggest military computer hack of all time.
In a series of events McKinnon hacked into and deleted files on systems in Washington and at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, in both cases systems were rendered inoperable. The US Government estimates the cost of rectifying problems caused by McKinnon at $700,000.
Since the attacks Mr McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome with overlying depression, has claimed that his actions were an attempt to unearth information about UFOs in America and theories of free energy suppression. However, the US Federal Investigators believe that these are cover up stories invented after the event when the seriousness of the offences committed had sunk in.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph a senior US military officer said: "As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and NASA computers and left silly 'anti-America' messages."
It is feared that if he is extradited to face charges Mr McKinnon's mental health may deteriorate and there is a concern that he poses a suicide risk.
Ms May will now review the case in the autumn. She is understood to be concerned that Mr McKinnon has not been examined by a Home Office doctor.
Mr McKinnon's family say they had no choice but to refuse the Home Office medical assessor, Professor Thomas Fahy, access to Mr McKinnon on the basis that he has no previous experience in eliciting suicidal tendencies from Asperger's patients.
Source:
Gary McKinnon extradition decision due in October (BBC News)
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