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Comment by contingencies | Hacker News Reader

Summary: Anakata was seized without warning in Cambodia, shoved on a plane, flown half-way around the world, arrested and imprisoned upon his arrival in Sweden under new charges (alleged hacking of 'Logica') and questionable circumstances (including well timed aid donations and high level, out of the ordinary political exchanges) Anakata has been in prison, largely under 23 hour a day solitary confinement which under UN definition may constitute torture. He and his mother have been trying to gain him access to distance education in mathematics, but prison authorities have denied him access to even a graphing calculator. 225MB of bilingual English/Swedish documents have also been released.

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Sweden sends aid to Cambodia every year, they did not receive any extra for arresting Anakata.

What you call "solitary confinement" is standard procedure before a trial. This is not considered torture by either the UN or Amnesty International. As soon as the trial is over he'll be transfered to a regular prison and restrictions will be relaxed. He may then study mathematics if he feel like it.

> What you call "solitary confinement" is standard procedure before a trial. This is not considered torture by either the UN or Amnesty International.

That entirely depends on how long that situation lasts. Whether it's a few days or a few months.

Anybody who read stories about solitary confinement from prisoners will be able to tell you that solitary confinement is in fact torture.

But it's not solitary confinement in that way. You are allowed to see your lawyer, you interact with staff and you are allowed to go outside every now and then.

Isn't a graphing calculator an unreasonable demand for someone who's been brought in on hacking charges? You and I know he couldn't do much with it, but it's a common term of parole for computer criminals to be denied computer use, even for their work. I'm not saying I agree with it, but it seems like a ridiculous point to milk, saying "they won't even let him have a graphing calculator!". They also won't let him have a 286, or a PDP-8, or a smartphone.

> it's a common term of parole for computer criminals to be denied computer use, even for their work. He's not sentenced. And he's in Sweden (not common to deny computer use in the same way as in the U.S.) I would be interested in finding out on what grounds they are denying him. It's not that I'm too lazy to find out myself, but I'm on a phone and it's a lot of data to look at.

If the investigation was ongoing they could deny him based on risk of tampering with evidence ("kollusionsfara"), I guess. A bit farfetched, but possible. The investigation is finished, is he still being denied access to a calculator?

EDIT: OK, after looking into this a bit I'm guessing BrB 24 kap 5a makes it legal.

Are you kidding me? A graphing calculator unreasonable? You can't seriously think that any hacking could be done from a graphing calculator inside a prison with no Internet connection. He's a hacker, not a goddamn Salem Witch.

I missed this comment a few days ago, but I feel like it's worth replying to anyways:

It's not about hacking, per se. It's about not using computing devices, and it's about convenience for the legal system. If they allow a graphing calculator, should they allow a PDP? Is internet access the limiting factor? Can he send code on a USB key to his teacher?

For a non-technical person to decide where that line is would be very difficult (as a technical person, I couldn't tell you offhand where it stops). 'No computing devices' is easy, and not unreasonable.

Of course, anyone on HN will complain that the legal system needs to be aware of technology. If we get into that argument, every public representative will need to be a painter, race car driver, astronaut and programmer. Because they don't really understand <x> well enough to legislate about it.

Requesting a less biased summary.

I have down-voted you for posting an extremely useless request. If you believe the summary is biased, it's up to you to prove that it is biased and/or provide your own. Requesting one in some strange passive-aggressive manner is not the right way to do that.

do you it yourself, he/she is not your servant.

I accidentally upvoted you while trying to downvote. Sorry if it makes a false sense of approval.

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