Sweden’s Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the judge in the high profile Pirate Bay case was not biased, as has been claimed by lawyers representing the men behind the popular file sharing site.
The appeals court judgment means that the case will not be reheard at Stockholm District Court.
“We have reached the conclusion that we do not agree with the conflict of interest claim,” appeals court judge Anders Eka told news agency TT.
Norström is a member of several organizations that take a pro-copyright stance. These memberships formed the basis of accusations from defence lawyers that the judge was biased and led to calls for a retrial.
Defence lawyers pointed out in appealing the convictions of their clients – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Carl Lundström and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg – on charges of complicity in breach of the Copyright Act, that one of the organizations receives funding from the recording industry organization IFPI.
The Court of Appeal conceded that the judge was a member of organisations acting in the interests of rights holders, but the court also pointed out that copyright holders enjoy constitutional protection under Swedish law.
“For a judge to back the principles on which this legilsation rests cannot be considered bias,” the court wrote in its ruling.
Read more on The Local (Sweden).