A vulnerable autistic man is pleading with the UK government to block his extradition to the US on cybercrime charges where he faces a 52-year sentence for alleged offending that began when he was a child.
Diogo Santos Coelho, who has been assessed as at very high risk of suicide, said he had been groomed and exploited online by adults from the age of 14 into committing the alleged crimes, which relate to the website RaidForums.
Coelho is accused of being the administrator of RaidForums, described in court as “a marketplace for individuals to buy and sell stolen databases” with about 10bn stolen records.
Both the US and Portugal have issued extradition requests for the 24-year-old, leaving the decision on which one to pick in the hands of the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, although an appeal against the US request is waiting to be heard.
Coelho said: “I’m just scared of the US system seeking retribution whereas I see the European systems, even the UK and Portugal, as more leaning towards rehabilitating someone and recognising that I was underage, I was exploited by adults. The Home Office believes that [there are reasonable grounds] that was the case.
“I often stay up all night trying to think: ‘What would happen to me if I go to America? What if I serve a long sentence and come out an old man?’ I won’t have any prospects. It makes me think what’s the point of living when I’m not going to have any life in prison or if I do make it through the prison sentence and come out. I don’t see a life going to America – it would just be a waste of my time even trying.”
The alleged crimes were committed when Coelho was in the UK and Portugal, while the victims are said to be global.
Coelho, a Portuguese national, cooperated with the Portuguese authorities from the start and is prepared to face justice there but said he could not imagine spending years in prison in the US without any support. He said his siblings could not afford to visit him there, while his mother is in hospital in London with Huntington’s disease.
Coelho, who had an autism diagnosis in 2022 after legal proceedings had begun against him, said he spent all of his time on computers after his Dad bought him a laptop when he was 11, a couple of years after arriving in the UK. He said he had no other interests, did not speak English and was bullied and an “outcast”.
His parents also went through a difficult divorce.
“Because of that I really didn’t have anybody to speak to, I didn’t have anyone at school because I barely had any friends and my only outlet was being online,” he said. “My father didn’t supervise me, my parents don’t really know anything about computing.”
His lawyers say he would probably be bailed in Portugal but spend months in pre-trial detention in the US with inadequate mental health provision. A US expert described the use of solitary confinement and restraining “turtle suits”.
The case has similarities with that of Gary McKinnon, who hacked into the Pentagon and fought a decade-long battle against extradition to the US, before Theresa May blocked it on human rights grounds because medical reports said he was at risk of suicide. Coelho is represented by Ben Cooper KC from Doughty Street chambers, who represented McKinnon and Lauri Love, who has Asperger syndrome and whose extradition for hacking US government websites was blocked by the high court.
Coelho said: “I was very young and impressionable [when the alleged offending took place], I’ve just been very naive. I’m not trying to run from any sort of justice, I’m just trying to have a chance at having an actual life and making things right.”
The Home Office said it did not comment on individual cases.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
