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16 October 2012

Theresa May blocks Gary McKinnon extradition on “human rights“ grounds

Home Secretary finds that the Human Rights Act isn't so bad after all.

By George Eaton

In a statement to the House of Commons, Theresa May has just announced that she has blocked the extradition of computer hacker Gary McKinnon to the US on the grounds that there was a serious risk that he would kill himself. To applause from MPs, she said:

[A] decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon’s human rights.

There is, as the Lib Dems will no doubt reflect, much irony in the Home Secretary invoking the Human Rights Act that she has so often reviled.

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