Following his arrest late last month, Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm was deported from Cambodia to Sweden.
Initially it was assumed that Gottfrid was sent to Sweden because of the outstanding one year prison sentence in the Pirate Bay case. However, once he touched down at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport, the authorities said he was suspected of being involved in the hacking of Logica, a Swedish IT company that works with the local tax authorities.
Since he hasn’t been charged officially in the Logica case the Pirate Bay co-founder could only be detained for a few days.
But, after a request from Prosecutor Henry Olin this term was extended for another two weeks mid-September, and last Friday the District Court decided that Gottfrid could be detained for another two weeks.
According to the Prosecutor the investigation into Gottfrid’s involvement in the Logica hack is still ongoing.
“He is suspected of this breach of data security. The court ruled that there is a risk he could affect the evidence in the investigation, and that there is a risk he could be committing crimes again,” Olin said.
To prevent Gottfrid from interfering with the investigation the Prosecutor believes it’s justified to detain him for more than a month without being charged. The Pirate Bay co-founder is not allowed to have visitors and is being refused access to newspapers and television.
“According to the Swedish system, when the preliminary investigation is finished, I as prosecutor will decide whether to prosecute him. […] In the Swedish system it is quite usual for people to be detained on this legal ground, and it gives me the possibility to prevent him from having contact with other people,” Olin said.
The Prosecutor hasn’t ruled out a request for another extension of Gottfrid’s detainment in two weeks, if the investigation is still ongoing.
Two other Swedish citizens, both in their thirties, were previously detained under suspicion of also being involved the hack. One of the suspects was a member of Piratbyran, the group that founded The Pirate Bay back in 2003.
Both of these earlier suspects have since been released. Gottfrid, meanwhile, denies any involvement with the Logica hack.
