A Scottish man is to go to the House of Lords in a last-ditch bid to avoid extradition to the US where he is wanted for allegedly carrying out the "biggest military computer hack of all time".

Gary McKinnon, 41, is accused of gaining access to some 97 US military and Nasa computers in 2001 and 2002.

The High Court in London yesterday paved the way for a final hearing before the Law Lords, the highest court in the land.

Lord Justice Maurice Kay and Mr Justice Goldring said that, although they had rejected his challenge to extradition, they were willing to certify that his case raised questions of general public importance.

The certifying of questions opens the way for McKinnon's legal team to petition the House of Lords.

His lawyers argue that he should not be sent for trial in America because he was subjected to "improper threats" which violated his human rights.

Mr McKinnon, of Wood Green in London, was born in Milton of Campsie near Glasgow and left Scotland when he was six years-old.

The Law Lords will be asked to consider whether his extradition is compatible with human rights laws on the basis of such an undertaking, received in the form of a diplomatic note from the US embassy.

McKinnon, who is currently on bail, has never denied that he wandered around the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002. He was arrested in November 2002.

But he has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.

Read more on this in The Herald.