One of the founders of The Pirate Bay is this month engaged in yet another battle. Fredrik Neij currently lives in Laos, Asia, and he and his wife are expecting their third child very soon. However, they need to cross the border to Thailand to give birth which is proving problematic - the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok has revoked Neij's passport.

Following the criminal convictions of Pirate Bay founders Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij, all but Sunde have kept a relatively low profile.

While the site’s former spokesman has been active online promoting his Flattr micropayment service largely from locations around Europe, both Svartholm and Neij took the decision to move to Asia.

Following his illness and subsequent no-show during the appeals process, little to nothing has been heard from Svartholm from his presumed Cambodia base. Neij too has been going about his business quietly but now finds himself in another battle.

According to a document dated August 6, Neij is currently appealing a decision by the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok to revoke his passport.

The 34-year-old argues that the nature of his crime is not serious enough to warrant his passport being taken away and that by doing so the Swedish authorities will subject his family to unreasonable consequences.

Although it was long believed that Neij had been living in Thailand, according to embassy documents he actually lives with his wife and two children in neighboring Laos.

However, since Neij’s Thai wife is currently pregnant with their third child, the family want the freedom to go to Thailand for the birth. That means crossing the border which of course requires a passport.

“The children were born in the hospital on the Thai side of the border, where since birth they have received all necessary medical treatment,” Neij writes in his appeal.

“The reasons for this are primarily dictated by the standard of care and hygiene. As a result the family needs to occasionally cross the border for medical care and as a result of the pregnancy.”

Neij’s desire to have access to Thailand is understandable. Laos is one of the world’s few remaining communist states and is one of east Asia’s poorest countries. The country suffers from limited communications infrastructure and in rural areas electricity availability is poor. Aside from a short link across a bridge in the capital, Laos has no railways.

In June, the Stockholm District Court claimed that that despite an earlier ban, Neij – known online as TiAMO – had continued to have involvement in the operations of The Pirate Bay. As a result the Court handed him a 500,000 kronor fine ($74,400).

“There is no evidence, just the lack of evidence that I was not involved,” Neij told TorrentFreak.

“In civil cases it’s guilty until proven innocent and in a previous case I declined to give the details who I transfered the site to. They say if it’s not me, then I could easily say who it is.”

While Peter Sunde waits on the results of a public campaign for him to receive a pardon from Swedish authorities, the whereabouts of Gottfrid Svartholm remain unknown.