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Pirate Bay Founder Released From Solitary Confinement
TrueSatan writes "Pirate bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm is set to be released from solitary confinement but is still to serve the remainder of a one-year sentence relating to Pirate Bay activities. Five months remain of that sentence and they are to be served in a normal prison with far fewer restrictions on his confinement — assuming no new charges are brought against him. He had been accused of involvement in the hacking of Swedish IT firm Logica, but no charges have been substantiated in that case. He was later implicated in a second case but, once more, no charges have been substantiated against him."
Why would a non-violent criminal be thrown in solitary immediately and also denied access to all but one visitor? I doubt it was to protect him from other inmates.
"Since then the Pirate Bay founder has been kept in solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day for weeks on end."
"Gottfrid wasnâ(TM)t allowed to meet anyone except his mother during his solitary confinement"
He and his mother have described it as such. I guess it depends on your threshold. He was allowed to receive occasional family visitors, but was held in a cell by himself 23 hours/day, which is a typical solitary-confinement setup.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
They thought they had Gilbert Gottfried in custody. An immediate trip to solitary seemed to be the only humane thing they could do for the rest of the prisoners.
Let my
Pirate
Goooooo...
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
The powers that be are clinging hard to their ownership "paradise", demonstrating yet again that they are willing to simply trample upon the law when they can't change it enough to suit themselves. Decency and the good of society be damned, when they aren't clothing themselves in fake morality.
History is full of reactionary, entrenched interests struggling mightily to hold back change for the better, and failing every time but not before causing a great deal of damage and misery. A few people were burnt at the stake for using the Gutenberg press to print unsanctioned Bibles. Monarchists executed many democrats. The US Civil War was one of the most extreme cases. Today we have Big Oil fighting to deny that there is a global warming problem, to the point it seems they really would rather see hundreds of coastal metropolises drown or go to the prohibitive expense of building dikes along the entire coast, if that meant they could keep selling oil. Otherwise they would have to develop and tap new sources of energy. They might have to hire more engineers and scientists, and even train more, heaven forbid!
Big Media's hypocrisy is exposed again. What next? Would be nice if humanity advanced to the point that reactionary moves were immediately discerned and those trying any dirty pool were swiftly censured. Then these kinds of differences would be resolved before the mud or bullets flew.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
I think I now understand why Assange prefers the Colombian embassy over going to Sweden to explain trumped up charges. If someone gets chucked into solitary before trial for running a business that is essentially similar to Google search, then I can't imagine what they will do to a guy that was accused of rape by two bar floozies. You are not paranoid if they really are out to get you.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
He was never IN solitary confinement
You have an interesting description of being locked in a small room for 23 hours a day and not being allowed visitors, including his lawyer.
What pray tell do you personally believe solitary confinement would be?
Ecuadorian embassy. Colombia has a right wing govnt. Ecuador a left wing one.
As a person who have myself been in the same situation as Gottfrid, in solitary confinement in a Swedish jail (häkte), I can assure you that it is a very demanding and unpleasing situation. The psychological and emotional effects of being in a small cell is very hard, much harder than it is possible to understand by reason. These cells are used by Swedish police to break people, to break hardened criminals, and for a normal person it is no easier.
Amnesty International has even issued criticism towards Sweden for the way solitary confinement is used by prosecutors, and this is no laughing matter.
What is interesting, to me, is the fact that charges of fraud and hacking seem to be handled in much the same way that treason and leaking state secrets are dealt with. In the case of treason, I can go a long way toward justifying solitary confinement, especially when the suspect has shown some possibly suicidal tendencies. In the case of mere fraud - no way. And, the suspect is far from suicidal, removing that little justification for close monitoring. More, there is no mention of solitary for his own protection, as was mentioned with Manning.
Tell me again which judicial system is more corrupt.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
It is guaranteed by law in all European countries including Sweden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_6_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
Well, first you have to actually get INTO prison. That's the easy part. Get creative.
Once your there, assaulting a few of the guards ought to buy you some time in solitary.
Its perfectly possible to get them to pay for your flights to the US too (and return flight on expulsion at the end of the sentence). It appears that the best crimes to commit are to provide links to torrent sites or to release US government information. You could take some tips from Julian Assange. WHat you don't want to do is anything like funding or encouraging terrorism or the courts will fight to keep you from the USA for years
There are very few countries in the world in general that use Common Law, it is however no requirement for a bill of rights or human rights. All European countries have equal protections [to the US Bill of Rights] and more by way of the European Convention on Human Rights.
What I find strange is that none of you considered the fact that he is convicted of the crime for which he is serving time. He subsequently fled the jurisdiction and is obviously not only a flight risk, has the ability to and great interest in destroying evidence against himself. It's perfectly understandable that the police would want him isolated.
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is a provision of the European Convention which protects the right to a fair trial. In criminal law cases and cases to determine civil rights it protects the right to a public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the presumption of innocence, and other minimum rights for those charged in a criminal case (adequate time and facilities to prepare their defence, access to legal representation, right to examine witnesses against them or have them examined, right to the free assistance of an interpreter).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_6_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
As treason is effectively working against the interests of the government, these days copyright infringement probably qualifies.