Gary McKinnon: The moment of truth

By Ian Dunt

Gary McKinnon's family are expecting to find out if he will be extradited to the US today, bringing an end to a decade of legal wrangles over the hacker's fate.

Home secretary Theresa May is expected to tell the Commons McKinnon will not be extradited to the US, after Home Office-appointed psychiatrists said he was likely to try to commit suicide.

The decision would be a massive relief for the Asperger sufferer and his mother Janice, who has campaigned alongside him since he was arrested in 2002 for allegedly hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers from his London bedroom.

McKinnon said he was looking for evidence of UFOs and that the messages he left mocking their security measures were merely mischievous, but the US government took on a highly draconian approach to the matter and suggested he could be jailed as a terrorist threat for 60 years.

McKinnon's family were elated when the coalition came to power, because Nick Clegg and David Cameron had been such stalwart allies in opposition. But in the two and half years since, they have had little indication of his fate.

Cameron is thought by some observers to have smoothed over concerns of Barack Obama during two separate meetings.

The psychiatrists' study, which has been seen by the Guardian newspaper, could be the route to the family's salvation, although McKinnon would still probably go on trial in the UK.