At the end of September 2010 three of the four defendants in the Pirate Bay case arrived at the Court of Appeal in Stockholm. The fourth defendant, Gottfrid Svartholm, was nowhere to be seen. The appeal continued without him, with his hearing and sentencing to be conducted at a later date. Now Swedish media are reporting that the Court cannot set a date for Gottfrid's hearing because he has disappeared.

When Gottfrid Svartholm, aka Pirate Bay founder Anakata, failed to turn up at the Court of Appeal in Stockholm on September 28th 2010, his no-show made all the early headlines in the hearing.

As co-defendants Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom all made their way into the Court, Gottfrid was on another continent, kept there due to medical reasons. Gottfrid’s mother, understandably concerned, announced she would fly out to Asia to support him.

Svartholm’s absence initially caused some confusion at the hearing. His lawyer, Ola Salmonsson, asked for the case to continue without his client present, but the entertainment industry representatives demanded that the earlier District Court “guilty” verdict should be made permanent.

In the event the case went ahead with three defendants, who were all found guilty receiving sentences ranging between 4 to 10 months and sharing damages of 46 million kronor ($7.23m). It was decided that Gottfrid’s case would be heard at a later date.

However, that date has not yet been set by the Court of Appeal.

“The reason is that we do not know where he is,” Gottfrid’s lawyer, Ola Salmonsson, told Swedish Radio yesterday.

“Personally I think it’s sad that we can not maintain a contact so we can discuss the situation, it’s not good, of course,” he added.

Apparently the Court of Appeal is hoping that at least in the first instance, Salmonsson can find his client but if that fails adverts can be placed in newspapers in order to contact him.

TorrentFreak has learned that at least up until a couple of weeks ago, Gottfrid has remained in Cambodia. The country has been Gottfrid’s home now for some time and his presence there has solicited comment from anti-piracy outfit BREIN’s Tim Kuik, that he is “hiding there”.

While Gottfrid may be giving the appearance of maintaining a low-profile, that appears to be for good reason. According to sources living in the area, Gottfrid is still battling illness and is being supported by his mother who recently flew out to Cambodia. We are aware of other details but while mindful of our duty to report, we will respect Gottfrid’s privacy and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery.

In the meantime, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom wait to hear if their case will move to Sweden’s Supreme Court.