McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner went on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning to state her plans to challenge the Home Secretary's decision not to block UFO hacker McKinnon's extradition to the US.

As reported previously by Infosecurity, Glasgow-born McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, is accused of breaking into a total of 97 US military computers in 2001/2002 and causing hacking-related damage that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair.

On the Radio 4 this morning, Todner said that the latest rejection by the UK government is a devastating blow for Mckinnon and his supporters, but "we are not going to give up".

"We are certainly coming to the end of the road". she said.

"We're just hoping at some point someone sees sense and steps in. All the legal team do know is we cannot give up because in some ways it's like dealing with a death row case, and we genuinely believe that Gary's life is at stake here."

Todner told the BBC that she plans to issue judicial review proceedings next week, owing to the fact that the UK government has indicated it wishes the process to be expedited.

If that due process fails, she intends to take the case of UFO hacker McKinnon to the European Court of Human Rights. She sharply criticised the UK government for its "spineless" attitude over the McKinnon case.

In a ruling issued to the media earlier this morning, the British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he had carefully considered the representations but concluded that sending UFO hacker McKinnon to the US would not breach his human rights.

"Due to legitimate concerns over Mr McKinnon's health, we have sought and received assurances from the US authorities that his needs will be met", he said.

The BBC lunchtime news, meanwhile, quoted Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman as saying it is appalling the government placed a higher value on a deeply unfair extradition agreement than on the welfare of a British citizen.

"The Home Secretary should stop being an American poodle and start being a British bulldog", he said.