fugitive from justice

The U.S. Justice Department called Switzerland's largest private bank a fugitive from justice on Friday after it didn't send any representatives to a court hearing in New York, where it has been charged with conspired with American clients to hide $1.2 billion from the Internal Revenue Service.

Just when it looked like every avenue to prevent the extradition of self-confessed NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon had been exhausted, especially when just last week a couple of High Court judges denied him leave to appeal his case to the highest court in the UK, it looks like the hacking cause célèbre has got a reprieve.

Gary McKinnon is either a UFO-obsessed nerd who happens to suffer from a form of autism, or a fugitive from justice who was responsible for the biggest military hack of all time.

The description varies depending upon whether you are a balanced individual with no axe to grind or the US authorities looking for a scapegoat to deflect the simple fact that their own cyber-defences are woefully inadequate.

Rather predictably, but nonetheless sadly, Gary McKinnon today lost his judicial review in London which he was hoping would allow him to be tried for his crimes in the UK rather than extradited...