70% of Britons are against Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition
Over two thirds of Britons believe that Richard O’Dwyer should not be extradited to the United States. The 23 year old British student currently faces extradition for providing links on his website, TVShack.net, to watch film and TV content owned predominantly by US producers for free.
If he is sent to the U.S. he could face imprisonment for up to 10 years.
The Change.org petition was backed by over 215,000 in less than two weeks, breaking all records for any UK petition on the site.
The petition has drawn the support from cross party MPs and celebrities.
Despite the large amount of supporters including high profile public figures, Wales says the Home Secretary is ignoring hundreds of thousands of UK citizens.
"The Home Secretary continues to ignore hundreds of thousands of citizens, the UK tech community, business leaders, celebrities and MPs from all parties on this issue," said Jimmy Wales. "She should be very clear that we are not going to go away and new supporters are joining the campaign all the time. I urge her to meet with myself and Richard’s mother, Julia, as soon as possible."
O’Dwyer faces extradition on charges that are not a crime in the UK.
"I can’t believe that Theresa May has not had the good grace to respond to this campaign so far," said Julia O’Dwyer, Richard’s mother. "I had hoped that as an elected representative in a country that holds values of freedom so dear, she would have made some sort of response. I could lose my son for 10 years to a US prison for something that isn’t even a crime in the UK. I have been a taxpayer for my whole working life and now, when I need our government the most, they have totally failed me."
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