Marillion to play gig for McKinnon

PROG ROCK supergroup Marillion has agreed to play a benefit gig for Gary McKinnon as the Pentagon hacker's legal team prepares a last ditch attempt to have his US extradition order quashed.

Meanwhile, a political campaign to persuade Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to reject the US extradition request has gained momentum, with a clutch of big hitters demanding she show humanitarian care when considering the fate of people with Asperger's Syndrome, with which Gary was diagnosed in the summer.

Mark Kelly, keyboard player with Marillion, told the INQUIRER: "We're definitely interested. I spoke to the band about it and said let's put ourselves forward because its an important cause. They have agreed in principle. We just need to get some more details.

"I've always had an interest in computers and I read about Gary's case a couple of years ago. I identified with him a bit - someone hacking into computers and it being a bit of harmless rummaging around. He was looking for evidence of UFOs - it's not like he was a terrorist or anything," he said. "I'm a bit of a computer geek - keyboard player in a band - it comes with the territory really. Not that I ever got into hacking systems, but I could imagine in my younger and more stupid days I would have done something like that if I had the technical capability and would have seen it as a bit of harmless fun, and would never have thought it would lead to something as serious as this," he added.

"When I heard he was being extradited and was facing many years in prison and was being made an example of I thought, that's a bit harsh. He should stand trial here, shouldn't he?" said Kelly, who has someone with Asperger's Syndrome in his own family.

Ross Hemsworth, host of the Glastonbury Radio show Now that's Wierd was putting the gig together. "We sent emails out today to the Stones, to U2, to Bowie, just about everybody because its got the potential to be a Live Aid if we can get the support behind it," he said, adding that he had not set a date.

That would depend on the availability of headline acts and finding an appropriate venue: "We are asking, with cap in hand, for the 02 (the Millennium Dome), or Wembley (the national football stadium), or various other venues."

It is looking likely that McKinnon will spend Christmas with his family in London rather than in a US remand prison awaiting trial for charges of hacking military computer systems. His lawyers registered their intention to make an oral application for a judicial review with the High Court today. The application should be made before Christmas.

It will challenge Jacqui Smith's refusal to allow Gary's Asperger's condition to influence her treatment of his extradition order. If the application is successful, renowned human rights lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC will make the application in the new year.

McKinnon's written application for a judicial review was rejected by the High Court last month. Karen Todner, his solicitor, said Fitzgerald had more evidence of Gary's condition and his likely treatment by the US authorities, but it was usual for an oral application to differ only in the form of its delivery - that is, a personal plea can have greater success.

"If we are denied permission that's the end of the road," she said, " Although we've seen the end of the road before."

A Parliamentary petition started by David Burrowes, Gary's MP, has attracted the signatures of 62 politicians. Big hitters who have added their names include Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat's shadow justice secretary, Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee and Labour MP for Leicester East, Clare Short, the campaigning Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, John Pugh, the Liberal Democrat shadow Treasury minister, and Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Libdems.

Gary's campaigners emailed all MPs with a description of the reasons why his Asperger's condition would make him too vulnerable for extradition to face imprisonment in a US jail. They also requested the support of former Prime Minister Tony Blair. His office refused.

L'Inqs
Marillion's latest album is available for download here.
Myspace bans McKinnon as latest deadline looms
MP cries mercy for McKinnon
Jacqui Smith slammed by McKinnon lawyers
Contempt for hacker's autism defence
Gary's family and Friends speak out in the THE INQUIRER spodcast
McKinnon looks for legal loophole
Hacker's mum squares up to US
McKinnon loses European appeal
Lords throw McKinnon to the dogs
Pentagon hacker in the hands of the Lords
Hackers attack Boris as Tories call for crackdown
Hacker Matthew Bevan vents his spleen on the INQ