McKinnon Crunch Time Plea: Don't Extradite Me To US

42-year old Gary McKinnon will be informed later today of the decision of Law Lords whether he will be extradited to the US or not for what is considered to be the biggest (and boldest) military computer hack ever disclosed.

The hacker admitted breaking into NASA and US Army computers but only because the security was so weak and he was looking for evidence of UFOs existence.

Back in 2005, the US were formally granted a request to hand McKinnon over to American authorities and his plea to quash the extradition became desperate as he lost his case in the high court the next year.

Should he plead guilty and accept being extradited to the US, he faces only a couple of years behind bars rather than up to 60 years in a maximum-security prison should he refuse to cooperate.

Although he has not been charged formally in the UK, he is still facing a life sentence in the US for gaining access to 97 computers from his London flat.