A triumph for Gary and British justice

THIS was a glorious day for justice, as a defiant Home Secretary showed the world it still means something precious and unique to be a British citizen. Huge credit must go to Theresa May for finding the courage, which so many of her predecessors lacked, to stand up to the might of the US and do the right thing by Gary McKinnon.

Her decision to block his extradition to America, where the Asperger’s sufferer faced up to 60 years’ jail on charges of hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers from his bedroom in North London, is also a triumph for Gary’s mother, Janis Sharp.

For ten years, she battled to spare her son, who had been looking for evidence of ‘little green men’, from an ordeal which threatened to drive him to suicide.

Yesterday’s decision lifts an unimaginable weight from her shoulders.

Credit is due, too, to the civil liberties groups, lawyers and MPs of all parties who took up Gary’s cause. But as many campaigners generously admit, the outcome would almost certainly have been different if it hadn’t been for the Mail.

Indeed, this paper is fiercely proud of the role played by our An Affront to British Justice campaign in highlighting Gary’s plight and mobilising support for his right to be tried in a UK court for a crime committed on his own country’s soil. When spineless ministers in the last government sought to betray him, in their terror of upsetting the US, we reminded them constantly of their responsibility to a vulnerable Briton. When box- ticking civil servants and Home Office lawyers advised surrender to Washington, we challenged their judgment. When David Cameron and Nick Clegg came to power, we never let them forget their brave words of support for Gary, uttered from the safety of Opposition.

Again and again, we drew attention to the imbalance in Tony Blair’s treaty with the US, sloppily drafted in the aftermath of 9/11, which made it so much easier for the Americans to extradite British citizens than the other way round. Now, after three years’ remorseless campaigning and oceans of ink, a frightened British citizen has at last been granted his birthright – to be tried, if at all, under the laws of his homeland.

Meanwhile, Mrs May is acting to redress the imbalance in the extradition treaty, meaning no Briton who could be tried at home will in future be sent to the US without the authority of a British judge.

Indeed, this is a victory for everyone who takes pride in British citizenship.

One final thought: over recent months, sections of the Press have come under sustained attack, some of it fully justified, after the revelations of the disgraceful conduct of journalists on the now defunct News of the World. The case of Gary McKinnon is a timely reminder of the vital role of a free Press in holding politicians to account, and giving a voice to the powerless, when nobody else will stand up for our ancient liberties.