Hacker's extradition put on hold | Hacker News Reader

Hacker's extradition put on hold

news.bbc.co.uk

6 pointskirubakaran7 comments

I got through 5 or 6 of the articles RiderOfGiraffes pointed to, and it appears that the case for not extraditing this guy is:

* He has Aspergers

* He's been threatened with a 60 year sentence if he doesn't cooperate

* He's "terrified" of going to a US prison

* He could end up in Gitmo

* New Jersey officials want to "fry" him in the electric chair

* So they should just try him in the UK under UK misuse laws.

And I mean, whatever. I'd be terrified too. But then I'd also be terrified if I robbed a liquor store and got caught, Aspergers or not. The reality is, this guy would probably do 1-2 years, like Abene and Mitnick (even Mitnick did minimal time after his trial concluded). The "terr'ist!" and "gitmo!" stuff is just jingoism. He'll clearly get a better deal in the UK, and his family has to pull for that by any reasonable means necessary.

New Jersey officials want to "fry" him in the electric chair

The "terr'ist!" and "gitmo!" stuff is just jingoism.

But... that's what we do in the US. Execute computer hackers. In a state that has banned capital punishment, no less.

My favorite pastime is calling up the sheriffs posse and having a good ol' lynchin' for petty thievery, cavort'n and port scann'n.

I would prefer the electric chair to 60 years in a US federal prison.

I think the EU has an obligation to its citizens to not extradite them to a country that is known to treat non-citizens accused of a crime unfairly. Gitmo is a very rare case, but it is a track record that makes us (the US) look bad. The US is also less likely to care what happens to this guy, since nobody that cares about him can vote here. There is no incentive to treat him fairly, and the EU should take that into account before handing him over. (I know this isn't the first extradition ever. But this guy did not really do anything that bad, and he is facing extremely harsh penalties in a country with a third-world prison system.)

As a US citizen, I would rather be tried in the US than in France or Italy. I hope my government would consider the prison conditions there before extraditing me, especially if I didn't do anything particularly harmful to society. I am glad that this guy's government is doing that for him. (And I'm glad that the EU regulations force them to do so.)

On the other hand, if I ever feel like going on a killing spree, I am totally going to do it in Sweden or Norway. Please extradite me.

I think the EU has treaty obligations that supersede random people's [not jrockway] opinions about whether someone accused of a white-collar crime is going to be treated unfairly.

The EU can't sign treaties, only its member-states can do that.

Also, the US routinely violates international treaties, so why shouldn't the EU show us the same "respect"?

(I like the EU because it is powerful enough to balance out the US, which means the US can't do whatever it wants anymore.)

For some background on this:

http://searchyc.com/extradition

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