British hacker McKinnon decision due next month October

British Home secretary Theresa May will decide whether to extradite hacker Gary McKinnon to the US in about five weeks.

May rejected an appeal by McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp to bring the decision foward, according to the BBC.

McKinnon has been fighting extradition since 2006 after he hacked into the Pentagon a decade ago looking for evidence of aliens.

Sharp told the Daily Mail she was "confident" her son would be spared extradition and pointed out that both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged to intervene in the case prior to the general election.

“They wouldn't use a vulnerable man for an election campaign and leave him for another two-and-a-half years... to then extradite him. They wouldn't do that and they couldn't. It would be inhumane,” she said.

If Mrs May allows the extradition to go ahead, his lawyers are expected to apply for a judicial review to challenge that decision.

McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner told BBC News the High Court had fixed the case for hearing on November 28th and 29th should the ruling not go in McKinnon's favour.

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com