Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party. He has been named one of the top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, and shortlisted as one of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.

Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party. He has been named one of the top 100 global thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, and shortlisted as one of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.

Holding Gottfrid Svartholm Warg in solitary confinement in a Danish prison on opaque charges is being done deliberately to act as a deterrent to others not to challenge the status quo, Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the first Pirate Party, tells RT.

RT:Reports from Denmark says the co-founder of Pirate Bay Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is being kept insolitary confinementsince his extradition from Sweden. What is your take on that?

Rick Falkvinge: I’m at a loss for words just like you are, as to this question. We can observe that throughout this entire ordeal starting with a raid against the Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006, a number of rights violations – some more grievous than others – have been committed. It’s very hard to escape the feeling that governments are seeking to make an example out of Gottfrid Svartholm (also known as anakata) just to scare others who might challenge the status quo and, frankly, to please the United States.

RT: Warg is said to be charged with hacking into the mainframe computers of CSC, a Danish IT company. Is that correct?

RF: It is important to realize that we don’t know what’s happened with the criminal charges. For the Pirate Bay trial we know exactly what happened. We know there was an openly bribed policeman by the copyright lobby. We know that the judge was corrupt.

But we do not know exactly what happened in this criminal case. What we do know however is that due process has not been followed, even if Gottfrid Svartholm was guilty as charged in this hacking case, then justice has still not been served because he has not had his rights.

The extradition from Cambodia was littered with strange circumstances, like Sweden making a huge foreign aid payment, pretty much the same day that the extradition took place. There might not be a paper trail to show a connection but really if it’s that obvious I don’t think a paper trail is needed.

So Julian Assange, might have called him a political prisoner, I would certainly agree that he is a victim of politicians wanting to suck up to somebody they are star struck by, and I don’t think anybody deserves that treatment.

RT:If he has been acquitted in a Swedish court, why is he facing more charges in Denmark?

RF: It is hard to say really why he hasn’t been heard yet and why he’s even going to Denmark in the first place. It’s important to remember that this is a case where Jacob Appelbaum, the world famous top class security researcher, personally came to Sweden as an expert witness and shredded the prosecution evidence saying “If this was evidence produced by one of my students, I would have failed them.”

So he was acquitted of this exact charge in a Swedish court under European Union laws. That means that he’s also acquitted in any European court for this exact crime. And yet he’s being held in solitary confinement in Denmark! That does not smell right at all. Again you cannot escape the feeling that somebody is out there to make an example out of him because he embarrassed Hollywood.

RT:Do you think the Pirate Bay is any danger of shutting down for good?

RF: The Pirate Bay website has been remarkably resilient, no matter what the powers that have been thrown at it, it has stayed up. It’s kind of funny to note that the Pirate Bay was down for far longer when the operators had had too much Vodka for a night than when the Swedish police illegally seized all their equipment. So, the Pirate Bay is up and will stay up, I’m not worried about that at all.

But what I am worried about is how badly this will look in the history books, because the Pirate Bay, its operators and the activists defending the free internet will come out on the right side of history those who oppressed them will look very, very dark.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.