Pirate Bay cofounder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is to be deported from Cambodia to Sweden, but when this will happen remains unclear, the Swedish National Police said on Monday.
Svartholm Warg was arrested in Cambodia in late August at the request of the Swedish legal authorities who want him to serve his one-year prison sentence for his role in creating the Pirate Bay, a site that can be used to track and share torrent files that can be used to download pirated movies, music and software. Cambodia is planning to deport him, but it remained unclear where he would be sent. Sweden and Cambodia have no extradition treaty.
It’s customary to deport a person to his country of origin, said Kristoffer Mueller, deputy head of the international section of the Swedish National Police. He said he is unfamiliar with the process of deportation in Cambodia and did not know when Warg will be returned to Sweden.
“We want him to serve this sentence,” said Mueller, who added that the police would certainly be waiting for him when he arrives in Sweden.
Bertil Olofsson, head of the Swedish National Police’s international section dismissed allegations that Svartholm Warg was arrested and being deported on suspicion of his involvement in a hacking incident. An unconfirmed report from DN.se suggested that the Swedish authorities are after Warg in connection with a hack at Logica, an IT firm that provides tax services to the Swedish government. “He is wanted because he has a sentence to serve,” said Olofsson, adding that he did not have “any knowledge” about Svartholm Warg and the hacking case.
Cambodia’s Interior Ministry couldn’t be reached for comment.
Svartholm Warg was visited by Niklas Femerstrand, an independent researcher, hacker and political activist in Cambodia, who knows him personally, on Sept. 5 at the Cambodian Ministry of Interior Counter Terrorism department, Femerstrand said in an email. Svartholm Warg seemed “slightly stressed and sick of police officers,” according to Femerstrand.
Svartholm Warg’s current location is unknown to Femerstrand, who posted a detailed blog post about his efforts to find and help Svartholm Warg. “He has no phone and is not allowed to communicate with anybody. He was moved the day after I had visited him and been thrown out after we spoke in Swedish to each other, which they clearly didn’t appreciate,” he wrote.
(Jeremy Kirk in Sydney contributed reporting)
Loek covers all things tech for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com