Nasa hacker loses extradition appeal

Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon has lost his fight to block his extradition to the US where he faces a possible life jail sentence.

McKinnon is accused of sabotaging vital defence systems after admitting accessing 97 US military and Nasa computers between 2001 and 2002.

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On Wednesday the Law Lords rejected a plea by McKinnon, who has not been charged in Britain, to quash the extradition request granted to the US authorities.

He is now expected to take his fight to stay in the UK to the European courts.

His legal team had argued in the Lords that the US extradition request was an "abuse of process" and "an unjustified interference with the defendant's human rights".

They alleged that McKinnon had been told he was unlikely to be able to serve his jail time in the UK and faced at least four more years in prison unless he agreed to co-operate with US authorities.

McKinnon, aka "Solo" (the tag he used at the time of the Nasa hacks), claims that he is "a bumbling hacker" who was only looking for UFO files that he believed the US government were hiding from the public.

In his judgement Lord Brown said: "The gravity of the offences alleged against the appellant should not be understated."