Saturday 25 July 2015
No Love for US Gov: emergency fund for Lauri Love.
Courage Foundation takes Love on as emergency case, raising funds to fight extradition.
Lauri Love is an activist and alleged hacker from Stradishall, England, under arrest and facing potential extradition to the United States on charges of hacking into governmental agencies including the US Army, NASA and the Federal Reserve, among others.
Love was first arrested on 28 October 2013, for alleged offenses under the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. His house was searched and his computer was seized. The government tried to force Love to turn over his encryption keys, but Lauri refused to cooperate and was ultimately released on bail. However, the National Crime Agency refused to return Love’s computer because it could not decrypt his files.
In February 2015, it was reported that Love would take legal action against the NCA to retrieve his property. Love told the BBC, “Should police, having obtained a reason to acquire information but lacking any overt evidence of criminality sufficient to bring prosecution, be allowed to withhold private data? There is a very dire risk that this power will be used to disrupt protected journalistic and political activity.”
Then on 15 July 2015, Love was arrested again.
This time he was charged with hacking into various governmental agencies, including the US Army, NASA, the Federal Reserve and the Environmental Protection Agency. UK officials said that they arrested Love on an extradition warrant on behalf of the United States.
After his arrest, Love appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he was released on conditional bail and an extradition hearing was scheduled for 1 September.
The Courage Foundation is taking Lauri on as an emergency case: we must raise funds for his legal defence before his extradition hearing. Lauri Love needs all of our support to oppose his extradition and to end his persecution.
