Judge orders rethink on man's extradition to US in cybercrime case

A high court judge has quashed a Home Office decision that paved the way for a vulnerable autistic man to be extradited to the US on cyber-crime charges carrying a possible 52-year sentence.

- Haroon Siddique

The UK government has accepted that Diogo Santos Coelho, 25, a Portuguese national, was groomed and exploited online by adults from the age of 14, leading to him setting up the website RaidForums, to which the alleged crimes relate.

Both Portugal and the US have submitted extradition requests for Coelho. He has been assessed as being at a very high risk of suicide, and said he feared for his life if sent to jail in the US, where he would have no family support. Last year, the then UK home secretary, James Cleverly, said the US request should take priority over Portugal's.

At the high court, Mr Justice Linden ruled that Cleverly should have considered Coelho's “proximity to family and friends, his connection with the respective legal systems, his rights and the likely outcomes in the criminal process, and his rights to support in relation to his mental health bearing in mind that he has been found to be a victim of modern slavery”.