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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.
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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!
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.
Sweden's use of "häktning" has repeatedly been criticised on human rights grounds as it is repeatedly used to keep people in detention without bringing charges for a long time without charges brought, often under stricter conditions than in prison. It is one of several features of the Swedish judicial system that is cause for concern.
A person can be put in häkte as soon as a degree of suspicion is established (in an objective manner the law says, circumstantial evidence is OK for this). The purpose of the detention is basically to keep the suspect from interfering with the investigation or legging it, hence the quite severe restrictions on interaction with anything outside of the cell. It is a prosecutor's wet dream.
For the lower of the two degrees of suspicion, the detention order has to be renewed every 7 days, for the higher degree every two weeks. Repeat as necessary. This can (and does) cause people who are merely under suspicion (that is, has not yet been charged with a crime) to be held in häkte for extensive period of times.
For some really worrying bits of the Swedish judicial system, look at the practice of lay judges, or for that the professional judges, the obsession with procedure rather than justice being served.