A high court judge has ruled that a vulnerable autistic man should not be extradited to the US on cybercrime charges, quashing a Home Office decision.
The UK government has accepted that Diogo Santos Coelho, 25, 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.
Portugal and the US have submitted extradition requests for Coelho. The Portuguese national, who has been assessed as being at a very high risk of suicide, has said he fears 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”.
He added: “The fact that the claimant has been diagnosed with autism and has other issues with his mental health, and the risk of suicide, are also an important part of the circumstances.”
Coelho said: “After years of feeling trapped in a nightmare, this judgment feels like the first ray of light. I feel as though I have been properly heard, the high court has looked at the real facts of my case, acknowledged the unfairness of the situation, and has given me hope that my life doesn’t have to be in this state of limbo for ever.
“My position has always been clear and has never changed: I have consented to extradition to Portugal, my home country, and I am fully prepared to face the justice system there. I have never tried to evade responsibility, only to be treated with fairness and humanity. This decision has lifted a tremendous weight and I hope the home secretary will now respect the court’s clear judgment and allow this to happen.”
The judge also found that Coelho should have been allowed to make representations before the home secretary’s decision was made and that Portugal and the US should make representations too.
This means that when the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, retakes the decision, as required by the ruling, Coelho will be able to make representations to her as to why the Portuguese request should take priority.
Linden further said the original decision was taken on the incorrect basis that all of the victims of the alleged offending were in the US, whereas a key victim was the Portuguese state.
Coelho is accused of controlling and administering RaidForums, a hacking forum distributing data breaches facilitating fraud.
Ben Cooper KC, who represented Coelho, said: “This is a case where the accused’s home country of Portugal is well equipped to deal with its citizen for the totality of the conduct alleged by the US and more. Our client already consented to his extradition to Portugal. We are pleased that the court recognised the importance of ensuring the minister has both accurate information and considers relevant evidence before reaching such an important decision that will determine our vulnerable client’s fate.”
The case has similarities to that of Gary McKinnon, who was also represented by Cooper and who fought a decade-long battle against extradition to the US for hacking into the Pentagon, before Theresa May blocked it on human rights grounds because medical reports said he was at risk of suicide.
The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
