Former Pirate Bay spokesman and co-founder Peter Sunde was arrested today in a rural area near Malmö, Sweden. Sunde was wanted by Interpol for more than two years, ever since the sentence for his role in the Pirate Bay website was made final.
He has been living in Berlin for quite some time, but still had family ties in Sweden, which he visited occasionally. Earlier today, a special Swedish police unit tasked with tracking down criminal fugitives carried out a raid at a farm in Skåne. Local law enforcement reportedly worked in collaboration with the Polish police.
While details are scarce at the moment, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reports that the arrest has been confirmed by the Swedish authorities. According to Peter Althin, Sunde’s lawyer, the news means that his client will most likely be sent to prison to serve his 8-month sentence.
Sunde’s prison sentence was made final in 2012 after Sweden’s Supreme Court announced its decision not to grant leave to appeal in the long-running criminal case against the founders of The Pirate Bay.
However, Sunde decided not to give up without a fight. First he submitted his case to the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR), and after that was rejected he tried again at the Swedish Supreme Court this year, which rejected the request earlier this month.
Thus far only Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström has completed their prison sentences. The fourth defendant, Fredrik Neij remains a fugitive and currently resides in Asia.
Interestingly, today’s arrest comes exactly eight years after The Pirate Bay servers were raided, which marked the start of the criminal prosecution of the four people connected to the site.