Cambodia deports Pirate Bay co-founder, heading to Sweden

Reuters, September 11, 2012

Cambodia on Monday deported a Swedish co-founder of Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, who was convicted and sentenced to prison in Sweden for breaching copyright laws.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 27, who had been living in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, for four years to avoid a jail sentence for Internet piracy, was arrested at Sweden's request.

Warg was put on a plane to Bangkok late on Monday and was due to take a flight from there to Stockholm early on Tuesday, said Chhuor Kimny, head of police at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Police were investigating allegations by Warg's supporters that they had hacked into some government websites in protest at his detention, Cambodian national police chief Kirth Chantharith told Reuters on Monday.

Cambodia deports Pirate Bay founder wanted by Sweden on copyright law violations

Monday, September 10, 2012
By Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia has deported a Swedish founder of the popular file-sharing site The Pirate Bay who is wanted in his homeland for copyright violations.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was put aboard a Thai Airways flight on Monday night, said Chhay Bunna, a senior police officer in the immigration office at Phnom Penh’s international airport.

He said Cambodian authorities handed Svartholm Warg over to two Swedish police officers who were waiting at the plane’s door.

Did Sweden Offer Cambodia $59 Million for the Pirate Bay Founder’s Head?

Sep 5, 2012
Mario Aguilar
Gizmodo

Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm was recently scooped up by Cambodian authorities in Phenom Penh at the request of the Swedish government. Just yesterday Cambodia agreed to send him back to Sweden to serve his year-long jail sentence for creating the Pirate Bay. Turns out the Swedes might have paid HUGE for Cambodia's cooperation.

TorrentFreak reports that Cambodia and Sweden announced a strengthening of "bilateral ties. In other words, Sweden will be sending a handsome $59 million aid package over to Cambodia. (So far the only other source reporting the story is the large Chinese news agency Xinhua.)

Sweden Gives $59 Million To Cambodia Following Pirate Bay Founder’s Arrest [-Everything is for sale in Cambodia!]

06 Sept 2012
By Zach Walton
WebProNews.com

We brought you word on Tuesday that The Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested in Cambodia last week. He is to be deported to Sweden where he faces a one year prison sentence and a $1.7 million fine. After the arrest, people began to ask why Cambodia was so dead set on arresting and deporting Svartholm after he had already been living in the country for a few years. The answer may lie in a suspicious coincidence.

TorrentFreak reports today that Sweden has made a generous donation of $59 million to the country of Cambodia in the form of a care package. The money will be going to the development of Cambodia’s democracy, education, and other worthwhile causes. It’s a good move by Sweden, but the timing just seems a little suspect.

I don’t think anybody would deny the noble intentions of Sweden to help out their fellow man in a less fortunate nation. It just seems oddly suspicious that such a gift would come right after Cambodia agreed to arrest and deport the founder of one of Sweden’s most notorious file sharing outfits.

Cambodian authorities to deport Pirate Bay co-founder

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg (L) and Peter Sundin from Pirate Bay in Stockholm, on February 15, 2009, give their views on the eve of their trial. Cambodian authorities have agreed to deport Warg from the country today. Photograph: AFP Photo/Scanpix Sweden/Fredrik Persson

Tuesday, 04 September 2012
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodian authorities have agreed to deport Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg from the country in the immediate future, the deputy police commissioner confirmed today.

General Sok Phal said he met with Swedish authorities this morning and, due to the lack of an extradition treaty between the two kingdoms, Sweden requested the deportation of Svartholm Warg.

“We will use the Immigration Law against him to deport him out of our country and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng will sign on the deportation request letter from the police commissioner soon,” Phal told the Post.

Obama Ambassador In Cambodia On Day Pirate Bay Founder Was Arrested

Ron Kirk and Cham Prasidh in Cambodia Thursday (Image credit:khmernews.com)

September 3, 2012
TorrentFreak.com

With the destruction of The Pirate Bay seemingly an impossible mission for the time being, seeing that the site’s former operators serve their sentences appears to be the next best thing for the authorities. Following the unlikely news last week that site co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm had been arrested in Cambodia, a country rarely associated with its interest in intellectual property issues, it will perhaps be of interest that President Obama’s trade ambassador was in Cambodia on that very day.

It is well-known that the top brass at the U.S. movie and music industries have the ever-sympathetic ears of those in government, not least due to the “revolving door” phenomenon illustrated perfectly by current MPAA chief and former senator Chris Dodd.

In recent months, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has claimed time and again that key Hollywood figures used their influence to persuade some of the most powerful men in the United States to act against his company.

Cambodia Confirms Detention of Pirate Bay Co-Founder

By Erik Pineda | September 3, 2012

Cambodian authorities have confirmed over the weekend the arrest of Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who has been in hiding since his popular file-sharing site started encountering legal woes in 2009.

Mr Warg, according to Cambodia's government spokesman Kirth Chantharith, was arrested in Phnom Penh, the country's capital, by local police officers who were acting at the behest of the Swedish government.

"His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology," Mr Chantharith told Agence France Presse (AFP).

He hinted though that the top Pirate Bay figure could not be automatically deported to his home country as "we don't have an extradition treaty with Sweden."

Cambodian court gives Swede 28 years in drug case

March 16, 2012

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian court has sentenced a Swedish man and his Vietnamese girlfriend to 28 years in prison for drug production and trafficking.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Sin Visal said 30-year-old Nicki Christoffer Ekelund and the woman were convicted and sentenced Friday. They were fined 120 million riel ($30,000) each.

Ekelund's lawyer Ek Vannak said he would appeal.

Swede Arrested During a Drug Raid in Cambodia

(Photo: Koh Santepheap)

23 June 2011
ScandAsia.com

According to Phnom Penh Post, a Swedish man, his Vietnamese wife and eight Cambodian suspects were arrested during a raid on a residence in the Tuol Sangke village of Russei Keo district’s Tuol Sangke commune, Phnom Penh on Tuesday 21, 2011.

As Scandassia.com undertand the Swede is well-known in Sihanuowille where he had been living for several years. A Swedish businessman describe him a an easygoing guy, injoying the life on beach in Sihanoukville. When his bank acconunt went empthy, he packed his stuff, bougth two bus tickets til Phnom Penh. Chasing the luck once again. This time obviously with the wrong people.

According to the Swedish businessman the arrest took place several weeks ago.

Cambodian court jails Swedish paedophile

13 Aug 10
The Local (Sweden)

The 63-year-old Swedish man convicted for sexually assaulting three boys in Cambodia, will serve his 6.5 year sentence after a Cambodian court confirmed his conviction.

The Swede was convicted and sentenced by the court in Phnomh Penh for having abused the three boys, including his own adopted son.

The man claimed in an interview with the Svenska Dagbladet daily this week that he expected to be freed by the court after having paid out $11,000 in bribes.

The newspaper reported that its article was presented in the court hearing at which the man retracted his claims.

"The judge wondered about the circumstances and statements from the accused, but he denied it today. But it was something which the court paid attention to," said Annethe Ahlenius, the Swedish police officer following the proceedings, to the newspaper.

The Swede has been in custody since he was arrested in May last year after police and social services had been tracking him for three years.

During his time in custody the man has had daily contact with his son, who had previously testified against his father regarding sustained abuse, but changed his story at Friday's hearing.

But the court found the boy's amended stable to be unreliable and confirmed the conviction and sentence served in January against his adoptive father.

The 63-year-old retains the right to appeal the judgement, which ends Swedish police involvement in the issue.

"If the man has been convicted in Cambodia then we can not do anything. You can't try someone for the same offence in two different countries," said Lisbeth Tolfes, detective inspector at National Criminal Investigation Department (Rikskriminalen) to news agency TT.

The 63-year-old has been previously convicted for sexual offences against children in Sweden.

Swedish businessman murdered in Cambodia after meeting woman online

Nov 16, 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Swedish businessman visiting Cambodia has been murdered and his body dumped outside Phnom Penh, reportedly after he met a woman with whom he had corresponded online, national media reported Monday.

The Swedish embassy in Phnom Penh confirmed the victim was Jan Ola Jordansson, 45.

The embassy's counsellor, Karl-Anders Larsson, said he believed Jordansson was visiting the country when he was killed, but had previously lived in Cambodia.

'He had been managing a hotel in [the coastal resort of] Sihanoukville but I understand he was living in Sweden and was on a short visit to Cambodia,' he said.

Larsson said the embassy was waiting for the results of the police investigation.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper reported Monday that Jordansson had died from blows to the back of his head and neck, and said his pockets had been emptied. His hotel room was also robbed.

The Swedish newspaper Kvallsposten reported that Jordansson had gone missing late last week after meeting a woman on Thursday in Phnom Penh with whom he had corresponded online.

Police suggested that the victim had been killed elsewhere and then dumped at the scene. His body was discovered on Saturday.

Homicide eyed in Swede's Cambodia death

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Cambodian officials suspect that the death of a Swedish businessman in Phnom Penh is a homicide, Swedish Embassy officials say.

Karl-Anders Larsson of the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh told the news website DN.se Sunday that local authorities are treating the death of the unnamed 45-year-old man as a case of murder.

"We have received information that the body has been found and that he has been identified," Larsson said. "With all probability it is question of murder."

DN.se said the man disappeared from his Phnom Penh hotel room Thursday and his body was found in Kandal province south of the city on Friday. The Web site reported that the businessman had lived in Cambodia for several years and ran a hotel in the coastal city of Sihanoukville.

Police said the man met a woman over the Internet and was last seen leaving his hotel in her company. An investigation reportedly found his hotel room safe deposit box had been forced open, possibly as part of a well-planned robbery.

Swede held for child sex crimes in Cambodia

8 May 09
The Local (Sweden)

A Swedish man in his sixties has been arrested in Cambodia on suspicions of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy.

The man, who resides in the Stockholm area, was arrested Wednesday night local time, but denies committing any crime.

According to the newspaper, the Swede was the target of an investigation into other child sex crimes, and was a figure in another investigation into child sex crimes in Cambodia which was abandoned in September last year.

Interpol’s division for child pornography crimes learned of the arrest on Wednesday.

“We’ve received information about it, but haven’t been directly involved in the arrest,” said Interpol’s Anders Persson from Lyon, France.

Varg Gyllander, a spokesperson with the Swedish police’s National Investigation Department (Rikskriminalen), confirmed that a Swedish man had been arrested in Cambodia and that they had received information that he was taken to a detention centre in the capital city Phnom Penh.

“What we’re doing now is making sure that the Cambodian police receive the help they need from us. We’ll help them out as best we can,” he said.

Police don’t know of the exact charges against the Swede, but it has something to do with the sexual assault of a child.

“All we can say is that he’s known for similar crimes from before,” said Gyllander to the TT news agency.

Local organizations which against paedeophiles in Cambodia are said to have had the man under surveillance for some time.

He is reported to have been in the country since 2007 and been in contact with small boys, according to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

Seila Samelang from Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), claims that, prior to his arrest, the man was living together with five boys and had launched an adoption bid with local authorities in Cambodia, according to SvD.