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Gottfrid Svartholm Warg Arrested In Cambodia

Posted by timothy on from the hear-the-spiders-are-delicious dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, alias "anakata," was arrested two days ago (Original, Swedish) in Pnohm Pehn, Cambodia and may soon be facing extradition to Sweden (alternate sources: Aftonbladet (Swedish), IDG (Swedish)). He was sentenced to one year in prison for his involvement in The Pirate Bay in 2009 and failed to appear at the prison to serve his sentence. On a related note, the domain freeanakata.se seems to have been registered today although it currently isn't resolving."

4 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Sweden in general by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It appears to me that Sweden is becoming the centre of internet freedom battles. Is this geographical, cultural,legal or just luck of the draw?

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    1. Re:Sweden in general by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      t appears to me that Sweden is becoming the centre of internet freedom battles. Is this geographical, cultural,legal or just luck of the draw?

      /---/ another guy accused of rape, leaves the country when his lawyer tells him that he is wanted for questioning, caught in Britain and released on bail, then disappearing into some embassy in breach of his bail conditions, which _does_ make him a criminal in the UK.

      In a similar manner, leaving Sweden (after he had been requested to stay in Sweden by Swedish authorities) made him a criminal in Sweden (aside from being a suspect of rape and creating danger for another (sw: "Framkallande av fara", not sure what it is called in English legalise)). Sweden doesn't have a bail system, Swedish autorities just request criminal suspect to stay within reach (unless they believe the criminal is likely to commit new crimes), if the suspect doesn't accept the terms, he can choose to be put into arrest instead, at longest the time of the imprisonment for the crime he is suspected of have commited (in this case about 2-3 years for the rapes and, possibly, about 2 years for creating danger to another).

      If Julian Assange had played by the (Swedish) rules, he would likely have been a free man within half a year from now. And Swedish authorities wouldn't have stopped him from continue his Wikileaks business during his time of imprisonment.

      Bail systems only limit the movement of suspects with very limited monetary resources, which Assange haven't, he can ask his supporters for money to pay his bails.

      In my opinion, Julian Assange is a paranoid fool (as well as an misogynic asshole). If he had stayed in Sweden, his life would have been a lot less complicated. It is also much more likely that the British authorities turn him over to US, then the Swedish authorities: a) Sweden don't turn over criminal suspects to other countries, if they could be punished by death (however unlikely it is in this case), tortured (likely in this case, by the Swedish legal definition of what constitutes torture), or not receive a fair trail (very likely in this case); b) Wikileaks have done nothing criminal according to Swedish law, on the contrary, media outlets doing the same things as wikileaks have very strong legal protection in Sweden; c) Swedish authorities got really burned in 2001 by a US government that didn’t keep their promises and didn't tell the truth, when they have handed over two "criminal suspects" to US agents (the English language wikipedia article seem to have been slightly censored), making Swedish authorities look very gullible.

      On the other hand, how The Pirate Bay affair was handled by Swedish authorities is not proportional to how Swedish authorities usually handle such cases. At least the Minster of Justice, Thomas Bodströms, personal involvement in the case was against, at least the spirit of, Swedish law, and such involvement from a Swedish Minister in any case have not been known to happen since the 1970's (The Geijer Affair, The IB Affair).

    2. Re:Sweden in general by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We should start a campaign to extradite everyone to Sweden. I think it would be a great protest movement.

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    3. Re:Sweden in general by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Pinochet was a US puppet, put in place on September 11, 1973. And the 3000 Chileans were killed by US people. (Yeah, they probably conveniently leave that out in US history education.)