A British man, Lauri Love, who has has Asperger's syndrome, allegedly hacked the US government computers says he fears dying in jail if he is extradited to US.
He told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, "If I went into a US prison, I don't think I'd leave again."
Next week a judge will announce whether Mr Love, from Stradishall, Suffolk, should be extradited.
If extradited to US then he could face trials in three different US states, is accused of hacking into the FBI, the US central bank and the country's missile defense agency.
In his interview he said that the US prison is inefficient at handling people with psychological conditions.
"The way that mental health is dealt with in America is not in any way therapeutic," he said. "I have Asperger's and I have depression, so suicide is a real risk.
"And if I get a 99-year sentence, it's an absurd length of time, meaning I would die in prison anyway."
UK has dropped every charges against him.
In an email interview with the ehackingnews, Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of web security firm High-Tech Bridge said that hackers should be rehabilitated not always punished especially in light of the shortage of cybersecurity experts - "Today many Black Hats are doomed to stay cyber-criminals as there is no painless 'way back' for them. Many young talents commit mistakes at the beginning of their careers without realizing that they are doing something wrong or harmful. However, afterwards they continue following the wrong path as they cannot find a job appropriate for their skills and past technical experience.
Taking into consideration the current shortage of qualified cybersecurity experts, it may be interesting to think about rehabilitation programs for ex-cybercriminals and use they brains to defend companies. Moreover, these people will have to prove their reliability and skills and thus work harder than normal employees."