LHC releases child pornographer on bail
Lahore, 15th May: The Lahore High Court on Thursday suspended sentence of a man convicted for being part of an international nexus of child pornographers and released him on bail.
On April 26, 2018, a judicial magistrate awarded seven-year imprisonment to Saadat Amin of Sargodha under section 22 of Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 and also imposed a fine of Rs1.2 million on him.
Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime cell had arrested Amin on the complaint of the Norwegian embassy during 2017.
The prosecution said the convict was an active member of international racket operating online from Pakistan by engaging children having an age of 10/12 years and used to transmit their pornographic pictures/videos outside the country against monetary benefit.
It is reported that more than 65,000 pictures and videos have been recovered from the commit’s possession.
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As per sources, Amin was working in collaboration with pornographers namely Jan Lindstrom in Sweden, Giovani Betotti in Italy, Max Hunter in the US, Andrew Moody, and Mukhtar in the UK.
FIA has produced 11 witnesses against the convict. His counsel Rana Nadeem Ahmed argued in an appeal before the high court that the investigation held by the agency was faulty as it failed to arrest or investigate the alleged foreign agent in Norway. He said the money received by the convict from abroad was not against child pornography.
The counsel said the appellant had been languishing behind the bars since his arrest in 2017 while his main appeal against the sentence had not so far been decided by the high court.
He asked the court to suspend the sentence and release the appellant on bail as he was ready to furnish surety bonds.
After hearing the appellant’s counsel, Justice Farooq Haider suspended the sentence and released the convict on bail against two surety bonds of Rs 200,000 each.
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