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Did Sweden Pay Cambodia For the Pirate Bay Co-founder?

Posted by samzenpus on from the money-makes-the-world-go-round dept.

An anonymous reader writes "At the start of this month, news broke that The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm had been arrested in Cambodia. A bunch of updates followed, including that Svartholm would be deported to Sweden, and that the two countries of course collaborated on his capture. The latest tidbit, as of today, is the craziest one yet: Sweden essentially paid Cambodia tens of millions of dollars. The Government of Sweden has agreed to give 400 million Swedish Kronor ($59.4 million) to Cambodia for various reasons, including democratic development, human rights, education, environment protection, climate change, sustainable development, and poverty reduction. You name it (just don't say international arrests)."

6 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Assange and Ecuador? by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You have to wonder how "flexible" Ecuador would be if Assange ever made it there and USAID shows up with an offer of "development dollars".

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
    1. Re:Assange and Ecuador? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      They wouldn't accept it since the US went the other way and funded a police backed coup back in 2010. President Corea has hudge balls standing up to the US.

  2. No, you tell me. by loshwomp · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did Sweden Pay Cambodia For the Pirate Bay Co-founder?

    Why are you asking me? You're the one writing the article, so how about answering some questions and providing factual information instead of weaseling around with headline questions?

  3. Betteridge's law of headlines by Kergan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Meh the answer is No in all likelihood.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_Law_of_Headlines

  4. Re:What kind of dumbass... by Mr.+Wok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have lived there. There's lots of corruption. TPB admin also had huge drug problem, which most likely is why he chose Cambodia. He didn't go there for any kind of political asylum, he went there to hide from Sweden and to use drugs.

    Read khrem440 forums or ask any expat living there.. everyone knew about his drug problems. He also lived in an apartment that cost $750 a month. That's huge rent for a country where people earn like $30 a month.

  5. Re:It's Sweden, again !! by Rei · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the first comment in the article:

    Exactly who is giving that money to Camobdja I've checked the aid numbers and they say nothing about 400 million Crowns. Sweden do give ~150 million Crowns per year to Cambodja. See: http://www.openaid.se/countries/kambodja

    So Sweden apparently already has a regular aid budget to Cambodia.

    Sweden's annual foreign aid budget is $5,3B USD, and is generally considered to be well-run. Even if the reported number is accurate, that would only be 1% of the reported annual aid budget, an amount not at all inappropriate for a country like Cambodia.

    Oh, and humans suck at detecting coincidence intuitively. The sample size of possible events one could find suspicious is enormous, as is the search space on individuals around whom you might suspect a conspiracy exists. Conspiracies feed themselves because of this.

    --
    Alanis, you oughta know: she's older than you, more mature than you, and can show some restraint in a theater