33 year old ex-hacker, Lauri Love, has today one a landmark high court appeal against extradition to the US for hacking official US government agency websites. Love, who was facing solitary confinement and up to 99 years in jail, was arrested after hacking a number of government websites, including the FBI, Federal Reserve and NASA, back in 2013. This led to 3 federal indictments being returned by Grand Juries in 3 separate Districts where the agencies were based. Below are the case facts from a recent court document.
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The main argument for his case against extradition was the effect of being tried and sentenced in the US would have on his physical and mental heath. In a statement to the press outside the courts today Love explained that he's "hoping that this outcome can contribute to the discussion we are having as a society about how to accommodate people that have neuro-diversity, whose brains are made up in a slightly different way." Below is a brief timeline of events.
28 October 2013: Lauri Love is arrested in Suffolk under the Computer Misuse Act and accused of breaching the security of Nasa and FBI, among other US government agencies. He is released on bail.
27 February 2014: Mr Love is accused of a new charge of hacking into US Federal Reserve computer servers and stealing the personal information of users.
20 February 2015: Police in the UK say they will not return Mr Love's computer because they cannot decrypt its files.
16 July 2015: Mr Love is re-arrested by the Met Police executing an extradition warrant on behalf of the US.
20 August 2015: Mr Love tells the BBC he fears he will not get a fair trial in the US.
10 May 2016: A bid by the National Crime Agency to force Mr Love to hand over encrypted computer passwords is thrown out by a district judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
6 September 2016: Mr Love tells the BBC he fears dying in jail if he is extradited.
16 September 2016: A judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court rules Mr Love should be extradited to the US.
24 October 2016: MPs sign a letter asking President Obama to block Mr Love's extradition.
14 November 2016: Home Secretary Amber Rudd signs the extradition order.
29 November 2017: The Court of Appeal begins hearing Mr Love's appeal against extradition.
This is far from over. In fact it's really only the beginning of the case. Now after more than 4 years of appeals Love can finally be tried in a UK. The lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, announced in his decision that "we emphasise however that it would not be oppressive to prosecute Mr Love in England for the offences alleged against him. Far from it. Much of Mr Love’s argument was based on the contention that this is indeed where he should be prosecuted."
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None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the support from Wikileaks and the Courage Foundation. Not only is this a small victory for Lauri Love, but it's also a small victory for common sense and basic human dignity. Stay strong and keep fighting, Lauri.
Why would the UK govt allow Lauri to be extradited when he's clearly a talented hacker? I'm fairly confident he'll serve any phone sentence given working for GCHQ doing what he does best.....
Hacking the US!
It's all a dog and pony show.
You have a good point there. :-)
Great news. The US can appeal the decision though, and I think they probably will.
It is. Which hopefully means good news for Assange next week as well.
EDIT: US have 14 days to appeal.
I told you before fortified that you should be an FBI, and you said no lol. What about now, OK I recommend journalism. Nice details once again.
lol. Thanks.
A well deserved and highly justified ruling by the Court for Lauri.
But the condemnation of the US Prison system (look to the local jails - and it is far, far worse ... sadly) is a MAJOR VICTORY for all Americans who care about America's image in the world, the hypocrisy of our claims compared to our practice, and who seek a fair, just and humane system.
It will be interesting to see whom he ends up working for in a year or so .. I'm sure there will be some attempt to bring him into the state fold. I'm going to keep an eye on this so I guess we shall see. Thanks for the post @fortified
#Resistance nutcase Louise Mensch is lobbying to have him moved to a 'Supermax' prison with rapists and murderers.
She's such a useful idiot. I'm surprised she's still on Twitter.
If anyone should be aware how insecure the web is then it's the US government agencies. So when they place sensitive information on servers connected to the internet then they are asking to be hacked.
They can't blame any hacker, the agencies themselves should be held accountable for this.
Exchellent work and very creativity!!
Thank you for the beautiful sharing!!
I couldn't understand how he wins the court. I should research about it. I wonder about Lauri Love :D
All countries justice has some loopholes used by crimanls to get out through it
extradite hell
he should be ex e CUTED.
Rights groups and lawyers for 33-year-old welcome landmark judgment against extradition to US
A high court ruling blocking extradition to the US of Lauri Love, a student accused of breaking into US government websites, has been welcomed by lawyers and human rights groups as a precedent for trying hacking suspects in the UK in future.
So amazing
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