British hacker fighting extradition

In House of Lords to appeal being sent to US

16 June 2008 12:54 GMT / By Katie Scott

A Glaswegian accused of the "biggest military computer hack of all time" is taking his appeal against extradition to the House of Lords.

Gary McKinnon, or Solo as he calls himself, was living in North London when he allegedly gained access to 97 US military and NASA computers.

The systems analyst was arrested in 2002 but was never charged in the UK.

However, ex-Home Secretary John Reid granted an extradition request from the USA despite appeals from McKinnon's lawyers that the move would breach his human rights.

In 2007, the battle was taken to the High Court in London, where the hacker's lawyers claimed he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail, and a 45-year prison sentence if he was sent over the Atlantic.

The appeal was thrown out but now the case is going to be heard by the House of Lords.

Solo has never denied accessing the networks but has always maintained he was motivated by curiosity and only managed to get into the networks because of lax security, says the Beeb.