The ten year battle against his extradition would come to an end very soon when the Home Secretary Theresa May would finally take a decision on Gary McKinnon who has been facing charges of unlawfully accessing the US Defence Department computers.
The Asperger’s sufferer has claimed that he was innocently looking for evidence of little green men, but the US Government had been insisting that he must face trial in the US.
The Home Secretary is examining medical evidence about his psychiatric state amid fears that he may kill himself if extradited.
The High Court was told yesterday that Ms May was close and would take a final decision on his extradition after further medical examination was done on him.
Mr McKinnon’s family insist that he was a major suicide risk if put on a plane and have said that doctors assessments prove he is unfit to stand trial.
His barrister told the court his client had a ‘very serious mental condition’. Any further examination would be detrimental and dangerous to Mr McKinnon’s delicate mental health he said.
He said that McKinnon had suffered a long ordeal for ten years since his arrest and interrogation by the police in this country and any further tests could prove dangerous to him.
The QC for the Home Office has said that the case was coming close to coming to an end of the decision making process.
Judge Sir John Thomas said that it was in the overwhelming interests of McKinnon that the process was brought to an end one way or another. He also set two week deadline for the defence lawyers to decide whether they would allow another doctor to examine them.
If that did not happen than Mrs May’s decision would be made on the basis of existing evidence.
The public had become more and more interested in the McKinnon extradition case after the outrage last month when a notorious paedophile won his battle against extradition to the US.
Shawn Sullivan, who was on Interpol’s most wanted list won the right to stay in Britain on human right grounds.
The high court said the 43-year old was at risk of being put on a sex offender’s programme that would breach his human rights.
Mr McKinnon’s case has exposed the operation of the US/UK extradition treaty which critics say is lopsided and unfair on Britons.