Pirate Bay founder is being held in solitary confinement without a warrant

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2318828/pirate-bay-founder-is-being-held-in-solitary-confinement-without-a-warrant

by hseldon15 • 13 years ago

343 55 13 years ago

theinquirer.net

rayiner• 13 years ago

Can someone who knows Danish law explain what it means to be held "without a warrant" in Denmark?

freeall• 13 years ago

As a Danish person I was also confused about that when I first read it. I think it's a misuse of the word "warrant", and more has to do with whether or not they've charged him (I think).

Erwin2• 13 years ago

Generally if you are suspected of comitting a sufficiently serious crime -- where the prison term would be 18 months and above -- you can be remanded if there's a suspicion you are going to interfere with the investigation or flee.

The prosecutor requests the remandment, and a judge has to approve within a short period after the arrest (or release the suspect).

Isolation here can be requested if there's a suspicion the alleged criminal can interfere with the investigation, warn others, destroy evidence etc. by communicating.

You can try Google translate on http://www.themis.dk/searchinclude/Lovsamling/Retsplejeloven... if you want to know more.

This can in theory go on for 6 months, if the alleged crime would be penalized with less than 6 years in prison, or a 1 year if 6 or more, if the court approves the increase every 4 weeks.

Erwin2• 13 years ago

This is standard procedure. The alleged criminal is remanded typically up to 4 weeks at a time, and optionally isolated. This can go on for a bit if the alleged criminal is expected to flee, destroy evidence and that type of thing.

The headline and the article fail to stress why he's being imprisoned. It's unrelated to Pirate Bay, and has due to extensive intrusion into Danish government and police databases. Don't mistake this "cracker" type for some kind of brave fighter against restrictive copyright regime.

According to the article he's in solitary confinement.. "among violent criminals".

lechevalierd3on• 13 years ago

Yeah, this seems like this could be totally unrelated to TPB.

stephenson2• 13 years ago

It has nothing to do with TPB. He is accused of braking into the danish police systems, including out driver license database that holds our Civil Registration System number witch can easily be used to identity fraud. And this is just one of the accusations.

sillysaurus22• 13 years ago

So all authorities have to do to extinguish any "copyright freedom fighter" is to invent charges against them. Then apparently everyone will be A-OK with throwing them in solitary.

I think it's unlikely. But I also think authorities are sometimes corrupt. The only reason we know anything about this case is because they told us things. We're quick to believe them. Why?

Svip4• 13 years ago

You think the charges are invented? Why?

haberman• 13 years ago

Or we could turn this around: all a criminal has to do to win support from the technorati is to help people pirate movies before committing a different crime. Then apparently everyone will find them to be terribly persecuted.

tptacek• 13 years ago

Well, that logic works for any group of people and any possible crime. "All authorities have to do to extinguish 'pro life groups' is invent mail fraud charges against them".

gcb0• 13 years ago

crimes are usually measured in damage to society. In monetary value. And if we learned anything from former transportation or Drug cases and copyright cases, a copied music has far greater monetary impact to society than a life.

mjn3• 13 years ago

It's a procedure that exists, but it's nowhere near standard procedure in Denmark, as far as I know. The 4-week solitary remand is usually used for terrorism suspects, situations more like this one: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/04/29/Denmark-to...

Even violent criminals don't usually have such a procedure applied. If you got in a knife fight and stabbed someone, you might well be held pending trial, but not usually in solitary confinement. For non-violent offenses, being held pending trial at all is rare.

My guess is that the relationship to police databases got this filed under either "terrorism" or something that rhymes with it, and therefore it's being treated as a "national security" crime rather than an ordinary crime.

benologist2• 13 years ago

Even the worst violent offenders are heavily limited in the number of victims they can produce. Using a computer can affect many orders of magnitude beyond that so why exactly should "non-violent" prisoners be given more freedoms and better treatment?

Is this "less bad" than mugging someone?

  "He is accused of braking into the danish police systems, 
  including out driver license database that holds our 
  Civil Registration System number witch can easily be used 
  to identity fraud"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6897572

Svip4• 13 years ago

Actually, solitary confinement is pretty standard in Denmark. And for that reason, the UN has even raised concerns about it. Not that anything has happened in this regard.

marincounty• 13 years ago

He's no "cracker" type. Actually, he's just a hacker, and a guy who tried to fight "the man". I'm afraid modern man has morphed into castrated, hypocrites? They do what they are told. They actually like Facebook, and think Mark is a genius. I guess I'm from a different generation?

Kiro• 13 years ago

You obviously have no clue who anakata is. He's definitely the cracker type and was infamous long before The Pirate Bay.

6d0debc071• 13 years ago

Standard procedure or not, regardless of their crimes: Being held in isolation without even access to books and things like that, if we go by the article, is utterly atrocious for a civilised country to inflict on anyone.

It's not like we don't know that isolation and boredom are destructive to people's mental states. This seems like cruelty without a reasonable purpose behind it, hurting someone for the joy of hurting them.

mcantelon• 13 years ago

Solitary confinement is torture. So, cracking or not, a bizarre response to a non-violent crime.

4ad• 13 years ago

Among doesn't mean along.

devindotcom• 13 years ago

He was already in prison in Sweden, but was extradited last month and is in police custody, but apparently being denied visitations from family and his lawyer requires a special order which the police have not gotten. It's trumped-up stuff and not due legal process, but at the same time it's not like he's being held in a secret location after being thrown in an unmarked van. Here's hoping his rights are respected more thoroughly soon.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-held-in-solitary-...

henpa• 13 years ago

thepiratebay.sx seems down at the moment.

Edit: moved to thepiratebay.pe

danhak• 13 years ago

domain seized...moved to thepiratebay.pe

stephenson2• 13 years ago

It has nothing to do with this. He is not arrested in Denmark because of TPB.

loup-vaillant• 13 years ago

Anyone sufficiently paranoid must consider the possibility that it has something to do with TPB, and the charges are just made up.

grannyg00se• 13 years ago

If you're going to torture somebody because they're a troublesome inmate that needs punishing, that's one debate and I can imagine some arguments for that.

If you're going to torture somebody who hasn't even been found guilty yet, that's a different story.

GigabyteCoin• 13 years ago

Admit it. You hit the upvote button before reading the article because of the headline. I know I did, and now I want my upvote back.

I had completely forgotten about the hacking charges and his extradition from Malaysia. After watching the pirate bay documentary, I am fairly certain that somebody with his level of "enthusiasm" for his cause could have easily perpetrated the crimes he is accused of.

jrockway• 13 years ago

It's best to punish people after judicial review. Has he been able to call witnesses on his behalf? No. Has he been able to cross-examine the government's witnesses against him? No. That's the problem.

I have no idea how the legal system in Denmark works, but it seems unfair to punish him in the short-term without judicial review, and in the long-term without a trial by his peers.

sebcat• 13 years ago

Cambodia, not Malaysia.

Pirate Bay founder is being held in solitary confinement without a warrant

Related Stories