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As a European, I was surprised, too. But the key thing to remember here is that he pissed off some very influential people, so it's likely they stuck him in a m
by Udo 12y ago
As a European, I was surprised, too. But the key thing to remember here is that he pissed off some very influential people, so it's likely they stuck him in a maximum security facility with a lot of hardened criminals and some instructions to make his life as difficult as possible. Which is par for the course when you're an activist I guess, and a borderline-but-not-quite political prisoner. If you're someone who gives the authorities a hard time, they'll in turn give you a hard time, such is the nature of political corruption.
However, it's important to keep in mind that his sentence is only 10 months, which may not even be served fully. Those months are going to be bad, but the guy will return to his normal life pretty soon. He's a community hero, and financially taken care of, so there's probably not a lot to be worried about in the mid to long term.
- pathy 12y ago>so it's likely they stuck him in a maximum security facility with a lot of hardened criminals and some instructions to make his life as difficult as possible The prison is ranked as a "lower security class" prison (Class 2). With 1 being highest and 3 lowest. Considering that he dodged his sentence for several years it is not unreasonable to have him in the slightly higher security prison. Additonally I believe the class 3 prisons are "open prisons" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_prison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_prison ).
- Udo 12y agoThanks for clearing that up. The article certainly makes an effort to depict it very differently.
- alsetmusic 12y ago> Those months are going to be bad, but the guy will return to his normal life pretty soon. I don't know what life is like in other countries, but in the US the branding of having been to prison makes a normal life difficult. My brother made a bad mistake of striking a federal employee about ten years ago and he still can't get work doing more than clearing dishes because of it. He's brilliant, btw, but he'll probably never have an office job or similar ever again.
- Udo 12y agoI'd guess if anything it's worse in the EU since you don't even need to actually go to prison to have a bad permanent record, sometimes a fine for something as trivial as a regulatory violation will have the same effect. Heck, I think in most cases it's enough to have a bad credit status in order to be disqualified from finding work. On the other hand, I don't think a regular office job is what Mr Sunde needs or wants. It's clear that he'll do bigger and more public things with his life.