I’ll commit suicide rather than go to an American prison, British hacker says

32-year-old British hacker Lauri Love says he will rather commit suicide than end up with a long-term imprisonment in an American jail.

Two years ago, Love was arrested by officers of the Metropolitan Police Service who appeared at the door of the Suffolk home where Love lives with his parents to arrest him on an extradition request from the US.

Love was arrested for hacking into dozens of government computer systems, including those of the FBI, US Army and Department of Defense, stealing ‘massive amounts’ of data and defacing official websites.

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Last September, Westminster Magistrates’ Court granted the extradition request. If found guilty of the charges, Love faces up to 99 years in prison and $9 million (£7 million) in fines.

He is appealing the decision in the High Court in November on the grounds that he has Asperger’s syndrome and severe depression, and would be a suicide risk in the care of a US penal system unable to deal with his conditions.

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