In the upcoming extradition request against Gottfrid Svartholm-Warg, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Danish judicial authorities are disregarding an important acquittal in Swedish courts. This is remarkable, as European courts are bound to respect each others’ verdicts. It’s not hard to get the gut feeling that the establishment unites against the troublemakers and pushes all its safeguards aside, letting rights only apply to the Goliaths and not the Davids.

In the European Union, there is the principle of accepting the law enforcement and due process of law in other member states. There is an underlying assumption that the Greek justice system is safe and secure; there is an underlying assumption that the Bulgarian police is not corrupt. These assumptions are made because it’s necessary – even if they should happen to be outright proven false, the assumptions must still remain in place.

The reason is simple: if not, the Europan Arrest Warrant wouldn’t work at all. (The EAW is a tool which is abused casually in the European member states these days.) Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to propose tools like the European Investigation Order. (Which, for example, would force the Swedish police to investigate an Irish or Polish woman in Sweden suspected of breaking her home country’s ban on abortions, a women’s right which is sacrosanct in Sweden.) Otherwise, the European Union would not be able to progress with its plans on a European Prosecution Office.

But apparently, there are exceptions to the rule – when the Powers That Be want to really, really nail somebody hard.

Over to Gottfrid Svartholm-Warg. He’s convicted of electronic trespassing in Sweden (against Logica). But the Appeals Court has acquitted him from another case, against Nordea, following the expert testimony of Jacob Appelbaum who testified the prosecutorial technical evidence to be abysmally insufficient.

Let’s focus on the case against Nordea. The Appeals Court considered the prosecutor’s evidence unsatisfactory, and acquitted Svartholm-Warg. That should be it then, right?

But no: there is still a request from Denmark for Svartholm-Warg’s extradition – for investigation and trial concerning a case built on the exact same evidence and circumstances as the Nordea case. That is, the exact same thing he was just acquitted from in Sweden.

That, in itself, is both peculiar and inappropriate.

Besides, all of a sudden, the European Union’s principles of accepting the judicial authorities of other Member States have ceased being in effect. As long as the Danish extradition request to Sweden is active, the State of Denmark is rejecting the integrity, legitimacy, and competence of the Swedish justice system. (Which is rather remarkable between European member states.)

Everything is as usual in the European Union: the rules only apply if they benefit the big guy.

And in Denmark, both the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior have made public statements that they consider Svartholm-Warg guilty. Just so that the Danish police and courts know what they have to abide by.

Here, it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a suspicion of identical actions, equally illegal in both countries. Therefore, it would be rather absurd if Svartholm-Warg was acquitted in one country and convicted in the other.

I suspect things are working like this: High-profile electronic trespassing (“hacking”, sloppily) is an embarrassment that requires somebody to be crucified – regardless of whether it’s the right guy or not. And the State of Denmark might consider it a bonus to cause extra trouble for one of the guys behind The Pirate Bay. This isn’t justice, this is politics.