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Pirate Bay appeal begins without full defence line-up

Svartholm Warg struck down with parrot fever in Cambodia?

The Pirate Bay appeal in Sweden got underway this morning, but only three of the four men found guilty in April 2009 of being accessories to breaching copyright laws turned up in court.

Gottfrid Svartholm Warg failed to show up at the hearing in Stockholm’s Svea Court of Appeal, the Associated Press reported.

Svartholm Warg’s mother claimed that her son was ill in Cambodia and therefore wouldn’t be able to attend court, according to defence lawyer Ola Salomonsson.

The TPB man, who co-founded the infamous BitTorrent site in 2003 with Peter Sunde, Carl Lundstrom and Fredrik Neij, has been ordered to produce a doctor’s certificate by 7 October to allow for his case to be heard separately.

All four men were each sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay fines of 30 million kronor (£2.8m).

Sunde, AKA BrokeP, told The Register in a exclusive interview earlier this year that TPB’s co-founders had no cash to pay for the damages claimed in last April 2009’s trial.

“There’s no money, we have debts of 50 million Swedish kronor,” he said at the time.

TPB's mouthpiece has been characteristically vocal on Twitter this morning: "It is great to participate in a torrent swarm without sharing anything," he opined earlier.

The hearing continues until 15 October. ®

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