Fugitive Pirate Bay co-founder arrested in Nong Khai
PIRATE BAY co-founder Fredrik Neij, wanted by Interpol for assisting in copyright infringement, has been apprehended by Thai police in Nong Khai province while entering Thailand from Laos, a senior immigration police commander said yesterday.
The Swede, 36, was arrested on the joint request of the Swedish customs authorities, National Federation of Thai Film Associations (NFTFA), and Motion Picture Association of America, Pol Maj-General Chartchai Iamsaeng said.
Pirate Bay, founded in Sweden in 2003, is a website that provides magnet links and some torrent files to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. It is the most visited torrent directory on the Internet. Pirate Bay has been faced with legal actions and access has been blocked in many countries.
Neij, on Monday, was entering Thailand via a border checkpoint in Nong Khai province, travelling in a vehicle with his Lao wife. The Swede admitted to being the person on a wanted list posted at the immigration office at this checkpoint, after being questioned. He was reportedly in the same shirt he is seen wearing in the wanted photo.
An immigration police source said that Hans Fredrik Lennart Neij had travelled between Thailand and Laos 27 times since moving to Laos after he and other co-founders were handed a one-year prison term and a huge fine.
Chartchai said a Pirate Bay co-founder he did not name was arrested in Cambodia two months ago and another one was at large. Neij is now in immigration custody pending handover to Swedish police and his residence visa has been revoked.
An NFTFA official, Phattharawit Phothiwat, described Neij and Pirate Bay co-founders as “a threat to the film industry”, who had caused a huge damage to the industry’s revenue through copyright infringement.
