A 33-year-old man, who was arrested in Morocco in October 2020 on the basis of an investigation in which the file-sharing network DanishBits was closed, has been extradited from Morocco. The arrest and extradition show that the international police cooperation is working.
In 2016, Rights Alliance reported the file-sharing network DanishBits for illegally publishing Danish films on the services before their official release date, in addition to sharing articles, e-books and music – without the consent of the rights holders.
The report led to SØIK, after several years of thorough investigation, carrying out a comprehensive international action against the central ringleader behind DanishBits in October 2020. The action resulted in the closure of the service as well as the arrest of the Danish main culprit, who was in Morocco.
The prosecution has announced in a press release that the 33-year-old ringleader has now been extradited from Morocco and remanded for 25 days at a court hearing in Copenhagen City Court.
Read the whole press release here.
Special prosecutor Dorte Frandsen from SØIK, who has investigated the case, states the following:
“We consider the 33-year-old as a ringleader in an extensive file-sharing network. The case is still being investigated, and one should not think that they can hide abroad and thus avoid being brought to justice. International co-operation works, and you risk being imprisoned in a foreign country for a long time”.At the Rights Alliance, director Maria Fredenslund, welcomes the strong competencies that SØIK’s IP Taskforce possesses. “It is enormously satisfying for the rights holders to experience how SØIK strikes against Danish culprits both inside and outside Europe. It sends a clear signal that the criminals cannot hide – not even outside Denmark’s borders. It is really an excellent effort from both SØIK, the National Cyber Crime Center (NC3) of the National Police and from the police authorities of other countries involved,” says Maria Fredenslund.