Local Hull area Green Party joins campaign against McKinnon extradition.
US authorities have demanded the extradition of Gary McKinnon due to multiple hacking of computer systems in 2001 and 2002. McKinnon has been threatened by US prosecutors with decades in jail and even to “fry”.

"But what did Gary McKinnon do?” asks Martin Deane, Secretary of Hull and East Riding Green Party. “He entered remote computers using backdoors and left some messages.

“We have a popular UFO society in Hull! Many cities do. It’s precisely the unexplained, the secret, the unknown, that makes investigation - and science itself - so attractive. He was following an intriguing hobby researching NASA information kept from the public.

“So what’s the worst case scenario? They now know where a number of their weaknesses are and they have some egg on their faces. How does that lead to threats of locking him up for 70 years? One lawyer is demanding he should fry! In this atmosphere, if we hand him over, it’s likely to be a lynch-mob not a trial.” Mr Deane warns.

“I’ve been in touch with Gary’s mum, Janis, today. She tells me:

‘Gary is a vegetarian; he is a gentle pacifist but his extradition has been relentlessly pursued by both the U.K and the American governments as though he is a terrorist. She says the European Court on Human Rights has turned down Gary's appeal but that it accepted Abu Hamza's and allowed him a stay, even though the Human Rights Points presented to the ECHR for Gary were virtually identical in both cases’!

“Where’s the justice in this?? The British government has a responsibility to protect Gary McKinnon. Because of Labour’s iniquitous Extradition Law, every court has failed to protect him so far. Now he is to be put at the mercy of the US justice system. It is time for our Home Secretary to show compassion, and an understanding of the serious disregard for the implications of Asperger’s Syndrome which the courts have taken, by refusing the extradition.”

The local party joins with his lawyers and campaign groups such as Liberty, the Disabled People’s Action Network, and the Mental Health Action Group, to call:

1. · for the UK government to intervene and not to extradite McKinnon to America,
2. · for the one-way extradition agreement with America to be halted pending a full review
3. · for, at the very least, Gary McKinnon to be returned to Britain after trial.

Gary McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome by foremost authorities, a condition which could explain the persistent nature of his so-called “crime”. He is described as “distraught” at what is happening.

Martin Deane

Sec, Hull and East Riding Green Party

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Demo outside UK Home Office:

Gary McKinnon protest 28 September to take place in Grosvener Sq. outside the US Embassy - so that's 4 pm on Sun 28 Sept outside US Embassy in London.

The last meeting of London ARM (minutes forthcoming) agreed that we would seek to hold a protest about the possible extradition of Gary McKinnon on the 28th September (a Sunday) from about 4 pm.
We agreed to try and get wider allies on board, including Liberty, Amnesty International, the UK Disabled Peoples Council, and others, such as local Stop the War Groups and any interested political parties.
I'd like to ask people to actively try and get a hold of people who they think might be interested in joining in such an event.
Protest is to take place in Grosvener Sq. outside the US Embassy - so that's 4 pm on Sun 28 Sept outside US Embassy
 

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