Australiensare utlämnad till USA - utan att ha varit i USA! Konsekvenser för EU-medborgare?

BEFORE he was extradited to the United States, Hew Griffiths, from Berkeley Vale in NSW, had never even set foot in America. But he had pirated software produced by American companies.

Now, having been given up to the US by former justice minister Chris Ellison, Griffiths, 44, is in a Virginia cell, facing up to 10 years in an American prison after a guilty plea late last month.

Not exactly, you signed up to the EU Extradited extradition which permits extradition for crimes including computer crimes (e.g. breaking DRM, no kidding). However that only applies to within the EU. But if the US can get a puppet government (e.g. Blairville) to issue a warrant for anyone in Europe, they can then extradite using the UK to US expedited extradition treaty. There's no limits on re-extradition. Worse, there is no judicial check in the UK, that the reasons given for the extradition, really complies with the requirements for extraditing. This is why a McKinnon (who broke US PCs into had a look around and left) is being accused of doing $5000 damage to each PC, in order for it to be a Federal crime and hence extraditable. The extradition mechanism doesn't let a UK judge check it.

McKinnon admits accessing the secret computers in 2001 and 2002, saying that he was looking for – and found – evidence of alien life and reverse-engineered alien technology. But whereas UK prosecutors said that he would serve community service, US prosecutors are publicly threatening him with sentences of up to 70 years in jail. McKinnon argues that he should be tried, but that it should be in the UK, where the offence was committed. He says that he was working with very basic hacking tools from a simple internet connection, and that the only reason he was able to access systems was because security was so poor.