re: PBay Founder Remains in Jail in Sweden-NO charges
Pirate Bay Founder Flies Home Next Week As Mother Criticizes Swedish Authorities
Posted: 08 Sep 2012
Last week police arrested Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Now, according to comments made by Bertil Olofsson, Head of the International Section of the National Police, Gottfrid will soon be taken back to Sweden, the place he once called home.
Next week the Pirate Bay co-founder will be flown back to Sweden escorted by a police officer and an official from the prison service. Since there are no direct flights between Cambodia and Sweden he will first make a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand.
One person that will be keen to see Gottfrid home is his mother. Kristina Svartholm has speaking with DN.SE about events since Gottfrid was detained August 30. She says she has had a tough time obtaining information about her son’s health, whereabouts and his ultimate fate.
“I have not got to talk to my son and the embassy, through the contact I had, have withheld information from me,” Kristina explained.
Even finding out where Gottfrid is being held wasn’t straight forward. When Kristina spoke with the Interior Ministry she was told that Gottfrid was being detained at the Swedish embassy, but the embassy said that he was being held by the Interior Ministry.
“I need to know where he is and if he is alive,” Kristina said.
Now the position appears to be a little more clear. According to contact Kristina had with the Swedish embassy through a lawyer, Gottfrid is now being held at or close to the airport waiting to be deported.
As reported earlier this week, Svartholm’s lawyer Ola Salomonsson said he had not spoken with Gottfrid since he had not received the required request from his client. This lack of representation for Gottfrid is also a concern for his mother.
“When I asked the embassy why he has not been talking to a lawyer I was told that he must ask to do this,” Kristina explained. “But when I asked if he knows about this [requirement], I got no response at all. I do not even know if he has access to a phone so that he can contact the embassy.”
But even now, more than a week later, it is still not completely clear why Gottfrid is being detained. Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde believes that the arrest was for something other than Gottfrid’s role in The Pirate Bay, a suspicion shared by Kristina Svartholm.
“[Gottfrid] has not committed a crime in Cambodia, he is not suspected of anything there. But he’s absent from his prison sentence in Sweden and therefore he can be recalled here. Gottfrid is apparently suspected of other things here in Sweden, and that is why they ask for his extradition,” she said.
As reported on Thursday, multiple sources in Sweden have linked Gottfrid’s arrest to a hack previously carried out against Logica, a Swedish IT company that handles data for the tax office. The hack made the headlines when the tax numbers of 9,000 Swedes later leaked online.
When approached yesterday, prosecutor Henry Olin who works on the case refused to be drawn on Gottfrid’s link to the Logica hack.
“I have no comment on it at all at present. I can can neither confirm or deny anything in this regard,” said Olin.
Kristina Svartholm says that whatever the case her son is just a suspect. He has rights and must be treated like a human being. That Cambodia has denied him his rights people might expect, but the fact that Sweden has done the same she describes as “outrageous”.
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