SNP MEP Alyn Smith has asked the EU’s justice commissioner to intervene in the extradition case of Gary McKinnon.

The computer hacker and UFO fanatic is on suicide watch after the Home Secretary’s decision not to fight America’s extradition request for Mr McKinnon to face charges of breaching US military and Nasa computers.

Mr McKinnon, 43, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, is accused of breaking into the Pentagon's computer system, but he claims he was just seeking evidence of UFOs.

Mr Smith has now written to the EU Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, asking her to intervene on his behalf.

He said: "The London government has progressively eroded civil liberties in the UK.

"This case is just the latest in a long line of examples of the UK government kowtowing to the US over the rights of our citizens, and in this case purely to spare the red faces of the US military and Nasa, and all thanks to a legally lopsided extradition treaty which should never have been passed in the first place.

"While it is clear that the US military and Nasa have been left red-faced by Gary McKinnon's actions, to put this man's life at risk merely to pander to their embarrassment shows no compassion from the US authorities, and similarly none from the UK government who have been so willing to bow down to these demands from Washington.

"I have no faith in the US judicial system and am extremely concerned that the Home Secretary can be so relaxed about handing over a very vulnerable individual for a crime that was, after all, committed on UK soil.

"I have today written to the EU Commissioner for Justice to request that she urgently acts to prevent Gary's extradition."

Mr McKinnon looks set to be sent to the US to face trial in a matter of weeks if the last-ditch plea fails.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said he did not believe sending the 43-year old to America for trial would breach his human rights, but his mother says he is "being treated worse than an animal."

Janis Sharp spoke of her concern over her son's suicidal state.

She said: "To keep someone in a heightened state of terror for almost eight years is against anyone's human rights. I wouldn't do it to an animal.

Mr McKinnon's family say that his health has deteriorated significantly under the pressure of the pending extradition and fears about how he will be treated by the US authorities. If found guilty he faces 60 years in jail.

The Home Secretary said he had considered demands for him to intervene in the case but had decided that the extradition would not breach Mr McKinnon's human rights.

He said he believed the human rights of Mr McKinnon, born in Glasgow but now living in London, will not be breached by the decision. He said that he had sought assurances from authorities in America that his health needs would be met.