The lawyer of The Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde has called for a retrial in the copyright infringement case that saw his client and three other men sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay £2.4 million damages.
The request comes after Swedish media reported that Tomas Nortstrom, the judge in the case, is a member of the same copyright protection organisations as some of the main entertainment industry representatives in the trial.
He is signed up the Svenska föreningen för upphovsrätt (Swedish Copyright Association), alongside Henrik Ponten, Peter
Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, all of who represented the entertainment industry in the case against The Pirate Bay.
Althin also revealed that he had successfully requested the removal of a previous judge after it emerged he had similar connections.
"In the autumn I received information that a lay judge could have similar connections. I sent these to the court and the judge was excluded in order to prevent a conflict of interest. It would have been reasonable to then review this situation as well,” he said.
However, Norström has denied being biased.
"My view has been that these activities do not constitute a conflict of interest," he said in an interview with Sveriges Radio.
