TPB Founder Will Carry Father’s Coffin in Handcuffs

Peter Sunde’s father has recently passed away after succumbing to a long illness. Peter will be allowed to attend the funeral, but he was told he can expect to carry the coffin while wearing handcuffs. Given that Sunder is jailed for copyright offenses and has only 50 days of his sentence left, this is a ridiculous attitude.

After Sunde’s sentence related to the BitTorrent tracker was made final in 2012, he remained at large – an individual wanted by Interpol for facilitating copyright infringement. In May 2014, a 2-year hunt came to its conclusion, and Sunde was transferred to the high-security Västervik Norra prison to serve his 8-month sentence. 30 days later, Peter applied to be moved to a lower security unit, which would be more suitable for his alleged white-collar crimes. However, his application was rejected.

Sunde has only 50 days left to serve his sentence and could have been looking to the future, but instead he had to face a family tragedy – his father has passed away. This event has prompted Peter’s brother, Mats Kolmisoppi, to speak out for the first time on Peter’s imprisonment conditions. He believes the problem is that the system has forgotten that its job is to support offenders to ensure that they never return to prison.

However, for some reason, that system has deemed that despite his non-violent crimes, Peter should be detained in a high-security prison. As a result of a continued struggle with the food provided, the vegetarian has now lost 13kgs in weight. In the meantime, the head of department was smiling when telling the prisoner that his application was rejected. Now the situation repeats with the guards refusing to allow Peter take his handcuffs off at his father’s funeral.

Peter’s persistent applications to see his father when the latter was at the hospital mostly failed, and he was only allowed to visit his dying father once. Shortly after, Peter and Mat’s father passed away. Now The Pirate Bay founder would be allowed to attend the funeral only on the condition of being accompanied by two guards and… wearing handcuffs. “You cannot count on carrying father’s coffin – you will be wearing handcuffs”, - he was told. Wearing handcuffs for what? To risk and run away for vegan food instead of spending another 50 days in the cell? A non-violent prisoner accused of copyright infringement, at 13kgs lighter in weight? Very funny.

Mats Kolmisoppi sadly admits that the Swedish criminal system for some reason punishes not only his brother, but also himself, his now dead father, his mother, his family, relatives and friends.

All the supporters of Peter Sunder admit that the sad events cannot be undone, but despite all obstacles, the TPB founder is at least likely to receive a warm reception following his release. Sunder is known as a bright person with a great future, which was proved by his work with micro-donation service Flattr and the NSA-proof messenger app Heml.is.