New home secretary reconsidering UFO watcher case -

Updates to this story

The UK Home Secretary has confirmed that she is considering a request from UFO watcher Gary McKinnon to reconsider his extradition to the US on hacking charges.

McKinnon's legal team has asked the new home secretary Theresa May to reconsider the planned extradition of their client.

McKinnon, 43, is about to be extradited to the United States to face charges of hacking into 97 computers operated by the U.S. government, including those of the Pentagon, Army, Air Force and NASA.

America was deeply embarrassed when the bumbling hacker looking for a UFO cover-up crashed his way though the finest cyber security the US had on offer. It wants to lock him up and throw away the key and had been asking the Brits to hand him over.

McKinnon, who is mentally ill, has maintained that he would top himself if the US play out its revenge fetish.

Last year, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that, after reviewing medical reports and court filings for McKinnon, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, he found no evidence of why McKinnon should avoid extradition.

McKinnon is now taking his case to the High Court, where a judge soon is set to rule on whether Johnson was correct in his decision.

But if May decides to reverse the decision then the case could be tried in this country.

Before they were elected, there was some support from both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats for McKinnon. The Brits have been jolly good at handing over people who the US has been accused of being bad guys but the US on the other hand is not so keen to extradite the people the British say have been naughty.

There is no doubt that rather than getting jailed for the rest of his life McKinnon would get a much lighter sentence in Blighty, if he went to jail at all.

A Home Office spokesman told TechEye that May had received the letter and was considering it. He could not say when she would make her mind up.