Lauri Love, British hacking suspect, wins extradition appeal against U.S. in landmark ruling

The U.K.’s highest court has ruled against extraditing Lauri Love, a British man wanted by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly hacking American government and military computers in 2012 and 2013.

The decision resolves, for now, a lengthy custody battle fought between D.C and London, and likely establishes a legal precedent for future cases.

Two judges of the U.K. High Court ruled Monday in favor of Mr. Love’s appeal challenging his extradition to the U.S., effectively blocking the Justice Department from trying him for allegedly breaching U.S. Army, FBI and Federal Reserve computers.

Mr. Love has been diagnosed with severe depression, Asperger’s syndrome and drug-resistant eczema, and his defense attorneys successfully argued his health would worsen if sent to the U.S. and put in the hands of its prison system.

“We come to the conclusion that Mr Love’s extradition would be oppressive by reason of his physical and mental condition,” Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett and Justice Duncan Ouseley wrote in the ruling.

“We accept that the evidence shows that the fact of extradition would bring on severe depression, and that Mr. Love would probably be determined to commit suicide, here or in America,” their ruling said.

The ruling allows Mr. Love to be prosecuted for his alleged crimes in the U.K. in lieu of the U.S., though British authorities have failed so far to bring charges against him.

“I am greatly relieved that I’m no longer facing the prospect of being locked up in a country I have never visited,” Mr. Love added.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which argued for Mr. Love’s extradition on behalf of U.S. authorities, has two weeks to decide whether to appeal.

Mr. Love is the subject of criminal indictments unsealed by federal prosecutors in New York, New Jersey and Virginia concerning a slew of cyberattacks conducted during 2012 and 2013, including several intrusions attributed to the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

The Justice Department told The Washington Times that it was reviewing the ruling, but otherwise declined to comment.