Swede deal: Cambodia gets $60M ‘social aid’ after Pirate Bay founder arrest

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In a move that’s set the blogging world alight, Sweden has pledged to give Cambodia $60 million for ‘democratic development’. Some think the timing of the deal - right on the heels of Pirate Bay co-founder Warg’s arrest – is no coincidence.

Many have already dismissed the possible cause and effect between the “imminent deportation” of Gottfrid Svartholm Warg at Sweden’s request and the 60 million US dollar social package as ‘ridiculous’. Sweden regularly sends financial aid to the struggling Southeast Asian state. But information available on the OpenAid website, which shows where Sweden sends taxpayer money – and how much, shows that this latest promise of help will exceed all previous donations by 50%. Right now rumors are rampant that Stockholm has given the money as a sweetener for the arrest of a man they want to see in court, amongst them, Sweden’s Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, thinks the timings no coincidence. “The timing of this generous aid package obviously raises eyebrows. I'm sure that it's formally deniable, but this looks like a complete buyout of Cambodian officials to obtain one of the world's most famous entrepreneurs who was politically convicted for undercutting the establishment's order,” Falkvinge told RT. The Pirate Party founder added that “nobody will ever be able to prove it, but if it walks like a duck and looks like a duck…”Forum discussions are abuzz with this development, with the skeptics slamming the sensationalists for making a mountain out of a molehill. They claim – correctly – that the aid deal had been in the works for months, and so cannot be connected to Warg’s arrest. Those in favor of the buy-a-hacker story retaliate with another true statement: Warg has also been in Cambodia for months, and behind-the-door negotiations about an aid increase could have been focused on the conditional deportation of the wanted Pirate Bay co-founder. After all, Cambodia – which ranks 158th out of 180 countries on the corruption index- has no extradition agreement with Sweden and has never before showed any interest in deporting the man. The guesswork can – and probably will – continue long after Cambodia sends Gottfrid Svartholm Warg back to Sweden. But with officials remaining tight-lipped, that’s most likely all this story will amount to – guesswork.