US ‘trying to override British justice’ to prosecute hacker

THE extradition to the US of accused computer hacker Lauri Love is an attempt to ‘override’ the British justice system, the UK’s former most senior prosecutor said.

Lord Macdonald, former director of public prosecutions, said the request from American prosecutors raises ‘questions of sovereignty’.

He added that the future looked ‘ghastly’ for the vicar’s son, who has Asperger’s, if he is tried in the US where he faces 99 years in jail.

Lord Macdonald, who was in charge of prosecuting policy in England and Wales from 200308, last week told the High Court the usual practice would be to try Mr Love in the UK.

Yesterday, he went further, saying: ‘The general policy should be that where an offence is committed in this country, it should be tried in this country. That’s what our courts are for. We shouldn’t be relying on other countries’ courts to deal with offences that have been committed here. It’s a question of sovereignty. We’re a sovereign country, we have a criminal justice system. If this guy has committed an offence in the UK he should be tried in the UK.

‘We shouldn’t allow foreign courts, American courts, to override our jurisdiction in the UK.’

Mr Love, 32, is awaiting the outcome of his High Court appeal last week against the decision to extradite him to the US. His family say he will kill himself rather than face trial in the US on charges of hacking Nasa, the US Army and the FBI, among others.

In his statement at court last week, Lord Macdonald said that those accused of similar crimes were generally tried in British courts.

‘This seems particularly to occur in the case of vulnerable defendants,’ he said, adding that the US justice system was ‘completely illequipped’ to deal with Mr Love.