Fanatics are treated better than Gary McKinnon, says terror chief in attack on human rights laws | Mail Online

Fanatics are treated better than Gary McKinnon, says terror chief in attack on human rights laws

By James Slack

Last updated at 12:10 AM on 10th October 2011

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Facing extradition: Gary McKinnon, pictured with mum Janis Sharp, has been treated worse than a terrorist, according to Lord Carlile

A senior Liberal Democrat peer and government terror expert yesterday savaged human rights laws for allowing fanatics to walk Britain’s streets while doing nothing to save Gary McKinnon from extradition.

Lord Carlile warned that the Human Rights Act was being brought into ‘disrepute’.

He called for fundamental changes to stop vulnerable Britons such as Mr McKinnon, who has Asperger’s, from being thrown into jail overseas while foreign terrorists walk this country’s streets with impunity.

The Home Office counter-terrorism adviser also called for his own party to drop its stubborn refusal to allow any changes to either the Human Rights Act or European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

He said the interests of the many – the British public – must be given more weight against potential civil liberties concerns about the ‘few’.

The comments will heap huge pressure on Nick Clegg to stop being a roadblock to reform and finally to honour his pre-election promise to halt the extradition of Mr McKinnon, 45, who faces decades in a U.S. jail for hacking into military computers from his London flat.

At the time of the offences, almost ten years ago, Mr McKinnon – subject of the Mail’s Affront to British Justice campaign – was searching for evidence of ‘little green men’.

Save her son: The Lib Dem peer's comments will heap pressure on party leader Nick Clegg, left, with Mrs Sharp

He has made repeated appeals against his extradition under Labour’s Human Rights Act but all have been rejected, despite judges accepting that he is at risk of taking his own life.

In the meantime, a string of terrorists have been told they may remain in Britain, including fanatics who helped the July 21 bombers, Lord Carlile said. 

He added: ‘The ECHR, while  protecting foreign terrorists, has failed to protect Gary McKinnon.

Vulnerable: Lord Carlile (right) wants assistance fro Britons like McKinnon (left), who has Asperger's and hacked U.S. government files in a search for aliens

‘The case of Siraj Yassin Abdullah Ali – the Eritrean-born terrorist  convicted of involvement with the  London bomb plot of July 21, 2005, but now free and living in London – is a striking illustration.’

Last night Mr McKinnon’s mother Janis said: ‘Even terrorists who have committed genocide have been allowed by our courts to continue to live in and walk the streets of the UK. How can this be justice?

‘Our courts have been misinterpreting and misapplying the Human Rights Act in favour of convicted foreign criminals, making a mockery of the Human Rights Act.’

via dailymail.co.uk