US drops bid to extradite UK ‘hacker’

THE US government yesterday dropped its attempt to have Lauri Love extradited on hacking charges.

The High Court ruled last month that the 33-year-old Asperger’s sufferer should not be sent abroad for trial. And yesterday the deadline for a challenge to that decision passed without any action.

Mr Love was arrested in 2013 accused of hacking US agencies, including the FBI and Nasa. He faced a 99-year jail sentence and experts and relatives warned he would commit suicide if extradited. Yesterday their campaign, which has been backed by the Daily Mail, ended in victory.

Reacting on Twitter, Mr Love said: ‘I have received an undertaking from the Crown Prosecution Service that the USA will not be appealing the finding that it would be unjust and oppressive to extradite me, given the woeful inadequacy of detention conditions. Now no prospect whatsoever of my extradition.’

The vicar’s son from Stradishall in Suffolk has suggested he might help British investigators to bring charges against him to get the case ‘over and done with’.

He said that if UK authorities cannot gather enough evidence against him, the case could be left open indefinitely in the US, meaning he will not feel safe to travel outside England and Wales.

‘The US may for whatever reason be somewhat reluctant to co-operate with sending evidence, so the CPS may find it’s difficult to prosecute,’ he added.

The CPS has not announced any decision on whether it will charge Mr Love.