Mother's outrage as Home Secretary links hacker to 9/11 attacks

Janis Sharp said Alan Johnson was "doing America's job" when he should be "standing up for British citizens".

She said her 43-year-old son, who has Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and is wanted for trial on charges of hacking into US military networks, could "easily" be tried in the UK if the government wanted to intervene to stop his extradition.

In a newspaper article yesterday, Mr Johnson said it would be illegal for him to intervene, stating Mr McKinnon was accused of hacking into computers "shortly after the attacks of 9/11 which killed nearly 3,000 US citizens".

Ms Sharp said: "I was very disappointed because not only is he (Mr Johnson] trying not to stand up for Gary's rights, he actually is trying to incriminate him by talking about 9/11 and all the people that died and then mentioning Gary's name.

"I don't expect him to actually be doing America's job, I expect him to be standing up for British citizens." She admitted her son's actions were "very stupid" and "ludicrous", but repeated her call for him to be tried in the UK.

"Gary's never said he should get off, or he shouldn't face up to what he's done," she said. "He should be tried here.

"If they (the government] want to, they could quite easily stop this extradition."

Ms Sharp added that she still held out hope that US President Barack Obama may intervene. "I think if he knew about this, he would realise, 'Do we want the first person ever extradited for computer crime to be a guy with Asperger's, who was looking for UFOs, who was so naive he admitted to computer misuse without a lawyer?' I believe Obama would say, 'No. Not in my time. Not in my name. This is a hold-over from the Bush era'."

She added that her son, who was born in Glasgow but lives in north London, was "very bad" at the moment and "extremely distressed" over his situation.

Campaigners seeking to block his extradition say his only crime is being a "UFO eccentric" who searched for evidence of extraterrestrials.

In a statement, Mr Johnson said Friday's High Court ruling, in which Mr McKinnon failed in his bid to avoid removal to America, made clear "it would be illegal for me to stop the extradition". He said: "Mr McKinnon is accused of serious crimes and the US has a lawful right to seek his extradition, as we do when we wish to prosecute people who break our laws.

"He is accused of hacking into 97 US army, navy, Nasa and Defence Department computers concerned with national defence and security at a critical time immediately following the 9/11 attacks and leaving the military network vulnerable to intruders."

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, who is standing in for Gordon Brown during the Prime Minister's absence on holiday, said it would be wrong for ministers to "second guess" the criminal justice system and order judges to halt Mr McKinnon's extradition.

Ms Harman rejected claims that Britain's extradition treaty with the US was "imbalanced", pointing out that American authorities have so far never refused to extradite suspects wanted to stand trial in the UK courts.

Last week, Conservative leader David Cameron joined the growing call for a review of the extradition laws in light of Mr McKinnon's case.