Portugal has also made extradition request for Diogo Santos Coelho who is facing cybercrime charges
A high court judge has ruled that a vulnerable autistic man should not be extradited to the US on cybercrime charges, quashing a Home Office decision.
The UK government has accepted that Diogo Santos Coelho, 25, was groomed and exploited online by adults from the age of 14, leading to him setting up the website RaidForums, to which the alleged crimes relate.
Portugal and the US have submitted extradition requests for Coelho. The Portuguese national, who has been assessed as being at a very high risk of suicide, has said he fears for his life if sent to jail in the US, where he would have no family support. Last year the then UK home secretary, James Cleverly, said the US request should take priority over Portugal’s.
At the high court, Mr Justice Linden ruled that Cleverly should have considered Coelho’s “proximity to family and friends, his connection with the respective legal systems, his rights and the likely outcomes in the criminal process, and his rights to support in relation to his mental health bearing in mind that he has been found to be a victim of modern slavery”.
