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UK High Court 'Perma-Bans' Efforts to Extradite Lauri Love to the US (arstechnica.com)
The U.K.'s High Court will not send Lauri Love to face trial in the U.S. for hacking government computer systems. Instead they've issued a final refusal to overturn Love's successful appeal of his extradition, Ars Technica reports, "effectively ending the extradition effort permanently."
Love was originally arrested in the UK in October of 2013 after using an automated scanner to locate servers within a large range of IP addresses for SQL injection and ColdFusion vulnerabilities and then breaching vulnerable systems and installing Web shells to give him remote administrative-level access. He allegedly managed to compromise servers belonging to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the U.S. Army, the Federal Reserve, NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Love's attorneys fought the extradition on the grounds that Love -- who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, severe depression, and antibiotic-resistant eczema -- would not get appropriate medical attention in a U.S. prison and would be at risk of suicide if he faced the potential 99-year prison term associated with the charges...
The U.S. had already essentially dropped efforts to extradite Love, but the ruling by the High Court now sets legal precedent that may bar future extraditions of British citizens on hacking charges. In a statement e-mailed to Ars, Naomi Colvin -- acting director of the Courage Foundation, an organization that has assisted Love in his extradition appeal -- said that as a result of the ruling, "there is now very little prospect of any British hacker ever finding themselves in the same position as Lauri Love or Gary McKinnon. Fifteen years of terrible public policy in which British hackers were left open to the vindictive instincts of US prosecutors have now been brought to an end."
Lauri Love told the site that with this ruling, "The era of the U.S. Department of Justice as world police is over."
The U.S. had already essentially dropped efforts to extradite Love, but the ruling by the High Court now sets legal precedent that may bar future extraditions of British citizens on hacking charges. In a statement e-mailed to Ars, Naomi Colvin -- acting director of the Courage Foundation, an organization that has assisted Love in his extradition appeal -- said that as a result of the ruling, "there is now very little prospect of any British hacker ever finding themselves in the same position as Lauri Love or Gary McKinnon. Fifteen years of terrible public policy in which British hackers were left open to the vindictive instincts of US prosecutors have now been brought to an end."
Lauri Love told the site that with this ruling, "The era of the U.S. Department of Justice as world police is over."
Breaking into a foreign government's computer systems - perfectly fine under UK law.
Teaching your dog to give a nazi salute as a joke - you will be persecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Looks like the UK has it's legal system in order.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
The US prison system systematically violates basic human rights. There was even a prison that was on total lock-down for 23 years. The US justice system is rigged and based on extensive intimidation and plea bargains.
In the essence, there is zero justice in the US and it's ridiculous to even ask for the extradition of anyone. Extradition treaties are not automatic processes, they are decided case by case, and human rights issues and the expectation (or suspected lack of) a fair trial plays a substantial role. They can also be overruled by political decision, although that's rare.
In any case, kudos to the UK Supreme Court for making the right decision. The UK can consider extraditing suspects for crimes that give 3 years in the UK but 30+ years in the US once US citizens have stopped making their 'don't drop the soap' "jokes"...
Don't come to America, where the US police have backlogs of un-processed evidence from rape cases but are more than happy to go after people for small quantities of drugs. Even if they aren't drugs -- recent case where some dumb cop arrested someone for suspicion of drug possession, which turned out to be donut crumbs.
I'd take a higher rate of theft and even terrorism over a "justice" system that abuses its own citizens and tries to abuse people worldwide.
UK takes cars of its citizens. Protects them from extradition, gives them tax-supported healthcare. The US? Land of medical bankruptcies, guns for any yob who can fog a mirror, killings by police, and excessive prison sentencing. US would have been better off if the "founding fathers" had been shot as traitors and it had remained a British colony. Britain even ended slavery 30 years before the US did.
That sounds much more fair than sending him to a crazy country that locks up a startlingly large fraction of its own population.
As opposed to the crazy country that's about to imprison a man for making a joke on the internet?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Lauri Love didn't murder anyone. He hacked into US servers, because he wanted to find out whether UFO conspiracies are true. He didn't even do anything nefarious with the data he found or publish it.
See that's the problem with you people, you're mentally insane when it comes to punishment and revenge. You miss all reasonableness and adequacy of punishment considerations. You're even fine with a systematic prison rape culture, but God forbid somebody shows a nipple on TV. You want everyone to be extradited swiftly to the US if it suits your agenda well, and at the same time threaten to invade the International Court of Justice with US military in case a US citizen might be accused there for crimes against humanity.
In a nutshell, you're a bunch of fucking hypocrites.
Plenty of IRA members - murderers & actual terrorists when the word meant something - fled to the US and were never sent back.
Some IRA members weren't extradited because they claimed that their crimes were political in nature, and the US along with other countries (including the UK) has a prohibition on extradicting people for political crimes.
Ironically enough the US rules on how to handle the potential extraditions of political crimes were at least partly based on an analysis of UK case law.
Really, that comment is "insightful"? Do you deserve to have your house vandalized or robbed bcause you haven't locked every single door and window?
As an American citizen, I am sick of the U.S. Government being the world's bully and I really and truly hope that Britain takes action to make non-extradition a law. If the British Parliament feels the need to block extradition, then I support them 100%. The U.S. Government does all kinds of shady shit while standing on some kind of shale-based, moral high ground and it's time we get kicked in the teeth and reminded of our place.