Labour MP Emily Thornberry ignores Asperger's victim's bid to beat extradition

5.17.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 17th Jul 2009

Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry has been slammed by Liberal Democrat campaigners in Islington for abandoning an autistic North London man who faces trial and prison in the US for computer hacking. Ms. Thornberry failed to turn up to vote for a cross-party motion in Parliament this week that would have compelled the Government to look again at sending him to face US courts.

Gary Mckinnon, a man with severe Asperger's syndrome from Wood Green in North London, hacked into American Government computers to track down UFOs. His extradition to the US has been relentlessly pursued by the American Government as if he were a terrorist, and he is facing 60 years in an American prison.

A cross-party group of MPs in Parliament this week called a vote for a review of the extradition treaty. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives were joined by Labour politicians, including Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, to demand that the Government review the case and the extradition treaty with the USA.

But the Government whipped Labour MPs to defeat this motion - and Islington South and Finsbury Labour MP Emily Thornberry failed to even turn up to vote.

Local civil liberties campaigner, legal aid lawyer, and Liberal Democrat councillor Greg Foxsmith - who has demonstrated outside the American embassy against Gary Mckinnon's deportation with the London Autistic Rights Movement - called Ms. Thornberry's decision "shameful".

Councillor Foxsmith said:

"This is a vulnerable man with a mental illness, who is facing sixty years in an inhumane American prison.

"Gary, who lives in North London, could easily be tried for the offences he has committed in Britain. Instead, the Government are happy to ship this vulnerable young man to the US to face a show-trial, and wash their hands of him. The one-sided extradition treaty was signed during the Blair-Bush love-in, and you can bet your bottom US dollar the Americans would not allow their citizens to be treated like this.

"Emily Thornberry's failure to join her Islington colleague in Parliament to fight this extradition is shameful, especially as she previously worked as a lawyer, and lawyers of all political persuasion have backed the campaign for justice for Gary. I really thought this would be one of the few things we agree on. Why was she absent, and will she make amends by offering strong and public support to Gary's case?"

Bridget Fox, Ms Thornberry's Liberal Democrat challenger in Islington South & Finsbury added,

"People expect MPs to stick up for British citizens, not persecute them. I'm appalled that Gordon Brown's Government went out of their way to push through a vote in favour of this vulnerable man being extradited to the USA. It's further evidence that Labour can't be trusted to defend our freedoms."

The vote was covered by the Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1199980/BETRAYED-Spineless-Labour.html