Lauri Love would be at high risk of killing himself in US, court told

Lauri Love, the British student accused of hacking into American government websites, would be at high risk of killing himself if extradited to the US, the high court has heard.

Love, who lives in Suffolk and has Asperger’s syndrome and severe depression, should be tried in Britain for his alleged offences, his counsel, Edward Fitzgerald QC, told the court.

Opening an appeal against an earlier decision that Love should be tried in the US, Fitzgerald said: “There’s a very real risk that he would commit suicide [if extradited]. There’s a virtual certainty that his condition would deteriorate.”

Love, 32, who holds joint British and Finnish nationality and is studying electrical engineering, also has eczema and asthma. “All these conditions would be exacerbated by the stress of removal,” Fitzgerald told the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, and Mr Justice Ouseley, who were hearing the case.

“The district judge [at the earlier Westminster magistrates court hearing] found there was a high risk of suicide if he was extradited. He has compelling reasons, including the care and support of his family, to stay in this country. The proceedings [the hacking trial] can take place in this country. He’s a UK citizen. His conduct took place here.

“He was arrested by the [British] police and they conducted an investigation before ceding priority to the USA ... There’s a general practice of trying hackers here who are UK citizens even where the target or whatever harm was done was in the USA.”

Removing Love to a US detention centre would expose him to “a real risk of inhuman treatment given ... the fact that he would be taken away from his family and the support he needs”.

Fitzgerald added: “We are not arguing for impunity. We are arguing that the proper place for him to be tried is in the UK and not the USA.”

The hearing is expected to last up to two days. The US government is represented by the Crown Prosecution Service. Love is represented by Fitzgerald and Ben Cooper of Doughty Street chambers.

Last year the district judge Nina Tempia ruled that Love should be extradited.

His case is regarded as the key test case for the “forum bar”, a defence against extradition that was introduced after the Gary McKinnon case to protect vulnerable defendants who could be tried in the UK. In 2012 McKinnon successfully defeated an attempt to extradite him to the US on hacking charges.

The human rights organisation Liberty, which has campaigned for improvements in UK-US extradition arrangements to protect British defendants, is involved in Love’s appeal.

Before the hearing, Emma Norton, the head of casework for Liberty, said: “If someone is accused of having committed a crime here in the UK, this is where they should stand trial. Extradition powers exist to stop fugitives escaping justice, not to pack vulnerable Britons off to foreign courts and unfamiliar legal systems.

“When Gary McKinnon was spared a similar fate, Theresa May introduced reforms to prevent extradition if the alleged crime took place here. But this protection has yet to be exercised. Now is the time – the stakes could not be higher.”

Kevin Kendridge, solicitor advocate and the head of the extradition department at Kaim Todner Solicitors, said: “Lauri Love’s case is exceptional because the Crown Prosecution Service has chosen not to prosecute here in England, unlike in every other recent similar case involving cross-border hacking allegations between England and the US, with the exception of Gary McKinnon whose extradition was blocked by Theresa May on article 3 grounds.

“In Lauri’s case the district judge ruled he suffered from a ‘severe disability’ because of his autism, that his physical health causes him ‘severe problems’ and that extradition exposes him to a high risk of suicide, and that this risk derives from his mental condition and so is beyond his own control.”