Two Swedes arrested in file sharing raid

The police conducted a raid against two apartments in Skövde on Thursday and the men were detained.

The prosecutor’s office in Stockholm believes that the men are part of an international network of file sharers and have decoded a large number of films before uploading them to the internet.

Swedish police were acting in collaboration with officers from several other European countries and raids were also carried out in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

“The suspects are at the inner core of organized pirates within the so-called Scene, which systematically steals films and distributes them on the internet,” according to Henrik Pontén, a lawyer representing the Anti-Piracy Agency (Antipiratbyrån).

“The Swedes have been at the head of the ring and the most important cells of the group’s infrastructure have been located in Sweden,” he adds.

The two men who are both 29-years-old. Prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad confirmed that the men were suspected of decoding a large number of films and making them available over the internet.

“We are dealing with a large number of films that have been made available. I am not at liberty to divulge exactly how many,” Fredrik Ingblad said.

Ingblad was unwilling to comment on the specific role the two Swedes played in the network.

The men will be interrogated on Friday afternoon and evening.

“I will then decide whether they should be released or detained,” Ingblad said.

Fredrik Ingblad is one of two prosecutors who administer all the illegal file sharing cases in Sweden.