Following the arrest of Gottfrid Svartholm this week it has now been confirmed that Cambodian police acted on a request from the Swedish government. Since there is no extradition treaty between the two countries Cambodian authorities say they are now considering their options on how to deal with the situation. Today TorrentFreak spoke with someone who was processed through the Cambodian deportation system to see what could lie in store for the Pirate Bay co-founder.

As reported yesterday, police arrested Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh last Thursday.

Svartholm was arrested in his $750 per month rented apartment above the Cadillac Bar on the riverfront. Although no reason for his arrest was immediately made public, Cambodian police have now all but confirmed that the action was Pirate Bay related.

“His arrest was made at the request of the Swedish government for a crime related to information technology,” a police spokesman told AFP.

In the wake of Gottfrid’s arrest the thriving and gossip hungry Cambodian expat community have been talking about the Swede’s last four years in the country. Yesterday Peter Hogan, owner of the Khmer440 forum, revealed that Gottfrid had been working for Arocore, an IT company involved in creating online casino software.

The now defunct Arocore was owned by a UK businessman named Kit Hargreaves. Three years ago Hargreaves told another expat who asked to remain anonymous that Gottfrid landed in Phnom Penh and asked him for work.

“Gottfrid turned up, asked Kit for work, told him his name and said ‘if you want to know who I am, Google me’,” TorrentFreak was told.

But according to Hogan the business relationship between Gottfrid and Hargreaves went downhill when the former’s drug use started affecting his performance and the business.

While Gottfrid certainly experienced significant difficulties in recent years, it is worth noting that Hogan’s article yesterday made no mention of the personal disputes he’d had with Gottfrid.

In the beginning, Gottfrid was a user on Hogan’s Khmer440 forums, posting under the name Agrippa and entertaining other members with his friendly personality and tales of his lock-picking hobby. Later he progressed up the ranks to moderator and beyond to become more and more involved in the technical side of Khmer440.

At one point Gottfrid secured hosting for the site on the servers of PRQ in Sweden but then something went sour. A dispute between him and Hogan led to accusations of domain hijacking. Although the site quickly returned to health, a source close to Hogan told TorrentFreak that the relationship was never repaired.

So what now for Gottfrid? Details are scarce but yesterday local police said that although there is no extradition treaty between Cambodia and Sweden, they are looking into their laws to see how the case can be handled.

However, according to someone [we’ll call him Tommy] who got into trouble in Cambodia “for being a complete idiot”, authorities out there do pretty much as they please and getting people out of the country is easily achieved, extradition treaty or not.

“I was arrested in Phnom Penh as a result of drugs misuse. The misuse of drugs lead me to assault a fellow expat after a falling out between us,” he told TorrentFreak.

“I was detained in a Sangkat (commune) jail for 4 days whilst awaiting transfer to the deportation jail which is housed opposite Pochentong Airport, located 7 km west of Phnom Penh. I was detained there for approximately 4 weeks whilst my return home was arranged and paid for by a nominated person in my resident country, liased with via my embassy.”

Conditions in the deportation jail aren’t excellent, but are apparently much better than those experienced in a “proper” Cambodian jail.

“You sleep on the floor. You may have a wicker type mat in the cell, though that’s not guaranteed. There are between 1 and 5 people per cell,” Tommy explained.

“During the time in the detention block you’re fed rations enough for three small meals a day, all food delivered in the morning. A diet of instant noodles (once you buy yourself something to boil your water with) and bread. You’re entitled to extras such as cigarettes at the discretion of the warden.

“During my time there you were subject to 24 hour lock up as fraternizing on the landings which was previously allowed had led to drugs being exchanged. The only time out of your cell is to meet with embassy staff which may happen once a fortnight or so (sometimes more regularly depending on the number of detainees from one country).”

According to Tommy, time held in detention varies greatly.

“One guy was out in 9 days yet an English expat had been housed there for more than 8 months as he had no way to pay for his return,” we were told.

Although it seems fairly clear that Gottfrid would have preferred to stay in Cambodia, under his current conditions coming home to Sweden must seem like an attractive proposition.