Swedish hacker suffering “torture” in Danish prison

As the Pirate Bay founder awaits trial in Denmark, his mother accuses the prison of torture-like conditions

Dec 16, 2013

The mother of Swedish hacker Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who was extradited to Denmark for trial, is accusing the Danish prison system of torturing her son.

After visiting her son on Wednesday, Kristina Warg told the Swedish news source The Local that she was "stunned and disgusted" by the conditions her son faced in the Køge prison.

"He's in isolation and he's only allowed to interact with prisoners for two hours a week," she said. "He is being treated as if he is dangerous. You can't do this to a person – it's torture."

She said her son is stripped of any contact with the outside world and apparently didn’t know that his mother was coming to visit him or that she even knew where he was.

"To treat him like this is disgusting,” she said. “I don't know the rules of keeping people in custody in Denmark, but the conditions he's in are enough to hurt people mentally."

Gottfrid Warg, also known as Anakata, was extradited to Denmark and charged with illegally disrupting public systems, illegally collecting data and destroying property by Frederiksberg City Court in November.

The Pirate Bay founder is due to appear in court on Wednesday, and faces charges for stealing social security numbers from the police driving licence database.

Køge prison not an improvement
The 29-year-old hacker was initially imprisoned in Copenhagen, but the court decided to keep him in solitary confinement in Køge until he is put on trial, fearing that he might thwart the police investigation or disappear from the awaiting trial if he is at large.

"I initially thought the new place was an improvement," Kristina Warg told The Local. "But the first thing he said to me when we met was: 'This place is no better than the other'."

Warg's isolation also led to his lawyer, Luise Hø, filing a complaint over her client's conditions.

Warg may be facing a prison sentence of up to six years, according to the Facebook page 'Free Anakata', but Danish prison officials have not confirmed this.

Warg is pleading not guilty to the charges and has argued that his acquittal in Sweden of hacking into the bank Nordea should have prevented the trial in the first place.