On 16 October, Britain's home secretary, Theresa May, blocked the extradition of Gary McKinnon, a British citizen who was wanted by the United States for hacking into the Pentagon computer system. May concluded that because McKinnon has Asperger's syndrome, sending him to America where he would face up to 70 years of isolation in a maximum security prison, "would give rise to such a high risk of him ending his life that the decision to extradite would be incompatible with Mr McKinnon's human rights".

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