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''© 2009 owned by or licensed to Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd.''

== The Article ==

By Mark Smith 

THE mum of Scots hacker Gary McKinnon has written to Barack Obama begging him to save her son from a US jail term.

The appeal to the US president came as McKinnon was given the news yesterday that he will not be charged in the UK - increasing his chances of being extradited to the US and a possible 70-year jail term.

McKinnon, 42, has admitted gaining access to 97 Pentagon, US navy, army and NASA computers between 2001 and 2002.

But his mum Janis Sharp, 60, said yesterday that Gary, who has Asperger's syndrome, would not survive a US prison term.

She said: "Gary is a gentle soul and would not want to harm anyone.

"But he would have to be on suicide watch if he was in jail in the US. They would see him as an enemy of the state and you hear these stories about male rape and stun guns in the jail system in America.

"He wanted to be tried in the UK but now it seems that the British authorities will hand him over to the US."

Revealing her appeal to the president, Janis said: "I have written a letter to Barack Obama.

"Barack is a good man and I'm sure if he knew the details of this case he would make sure that Gary does not have to face trial in America.

"Our lawyer Karen Todner has passed the letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband and it has been passed on to Barack Obama.

"If only there was some way for me to tell the president about this case, I'm sure he would see that it is unjust putting Gary through this hell."

Janis lives in London while Gary's dad Charlie, 65, still lives in Milton, Glasgow.

She said: "Gary's dad is not in the best of health. The strain of living with this case for the last seven years has broken his heart. We are all suffering. We just want it to come to an end."

The unemployed computer analyst, from Glasgow but now living in London, had told the Crown Prosecution Service that he would plead guilty to a charge under the Misuse of Computers Act.

A prosecution in Britain could have damaged the bid to extradite McKinnon.

But the CPS have claimed that most of the evidence needed to charge McKinnon, whose hacker name is "Solo", is based in the States and that the damage caused was "transatlantic".

McKinnon has always insisted he was not a malicious hacker bent on bringing down US military systems but just wanted to find evidence of a UFO cover-up and expose it, even labelling himself a "bumbling computer nerd".

Last year, McKinnon's lawyers lost a House of Lords appeal to prevent extradition to America. His lawyers tried to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights but the appeal was rejected.

But despite the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ordering the extradition of McKinnon, a judge has granted him leave to appeal.

The appeal - on the grounds that the Home Secretary's order did not take into account Gary having Asperger's syndrome - is due to take place in March.



== Credits ==

Special thanks to Glasgow Daily Record.


== External Links ==

* [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/02/27/exclusive-mum-s-plea-to-president-obama-to-save-computer-hacker-son-from-extradition-86908-21156386/ Original Glasgow Daily Record Article]

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