A LEGAL measure brought in by Theresa May as Home Secretary, which was designed to provide a safeguard to people facing prosecution abroad have made a former Glasgow University student and alleged hacker’s attempt to remain in the UK more difficult, in a case remarkably similar to that of Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon.

Lauri Love was speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald from his parents’ home in Suffolk, where he has been ordered to remain while his extradition appeals are considered. He faces 99 years in a US jail if convicted.

Love said the forum bar inserted into the Extradition Act 2003 by the Crime and Courts Act 2013 removed the safeguard that the Home Secretary could block an extradition “at the end of the line”.

In theory, the forum bar hands the power to consider human rights infringements to judges, adding a legal safety net for defendants facing extradition. But despite dozens of cases, not once has it been argued successfully and critics say the law isn’t fit for purpose.

“This case was the closest you’ll ever really get to the Gary McKinnon case,” says Love. “It proves that the forum bar has not been effective. Instead of providing additional safeguards, the new law took away the safeguard of someone who can say no at the end of the line.

“Home Secretary Amber Rudd is now explicitly not allowed to consider whether I might die and if that’s an infringement of my human rights. Everyone cheered when Theresa May announced that Gary McKinnon wouldn't be extradited. But now we’re not even back to square one. We’re in a situation that’s even more dangerous for defendants.”

Love is facing extradition to America after being accused of hacking into the US missile defence agency, Federal Reserve and NASA, and said he wouldn’t wish the “brutal and inhumane” US prison system on anyone.

There is a growing clamour this side of the Atlantic for Barack Obama to drop the charges against him, with around 50 MPs, led by David Burrowes, writing to the US President calling on him to drop attempts to remove the alleged hacker. Yet, for Love, it’s worrying that it’s come this far. He suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and has a history of anxiety and depression, but was confident that a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court last month would rule in his favour and prevent his extradition. His lawyers argued that he was at acute risk of suicide if extradited. The plea fell on deaf ears and now Love must appeal against the decision further up the judicial system.

“I wouldn’t wish the US prison system on anyone because it is brutal and inhumane,” he told the Sunday Herald. “But the fact is that people with mental health problems are more likely to die in prison.”

Love’s father Reverend Alexander Love, from Glasgow, is the chaplain at HM Prison Highpoint North in Suffolk near their family home, while his Finnish mother Sirkka-Liisa also works at the prison. Their knowledge of the system accentuates his fears that extradition would put his life in danger.

“My parents have an understanding of how our prisons deal with vulnerable people at risk of suicide,” says Love. “It’s a relatively humane, therapeutic approach. But in the US you can be put in solitary confinement in a suicide smock before being chucked back into the general prison population. You’re treated so badly that you try to end your own life and then they will punish you by putting you in solitary confinement. There are lots of cases where people have died.”

Love’s case bears a striking resemblance to that of Gary McKinnon, the Scottish systems administrator who fought extradition to the US for a decade after being accused of hacking government computers. McKinnon also has Asperger’s, mental health problems and was a suicide risk.

In that case, then Home Secretary May stopped McKinnon from being sent to the US as she judged that it would be a breach of his human rights. But the law was subsequently changed to avoid such the requirement of such an extraordinary intervention again.

However, despite the disappointment of the court verdict, all hope is not lost. Love’s case has been taken up by the Courage foundation, which supports people who risk their liberty in attempts to make information public.

Meanwhile, at the latest count more than 50 MPs have signed the letter calling on Obama to drop the charges. And there remains the possibility of appealing to the High Court, the Supreme Court and, Brexit-permitting, the European Court of Human Rights.