Child porn probe finds seven cases of abuse

Police are investigating 1,100 suspects whose names were provided by the US swissinfo.ch

Swiss police say a nationwide investigation into child pornographers has so far revealed seven cases of suspected sexual abuse against children.

The cases came to light during questioning of 822 suspects, who were identified as part of a massive police operation in late September.

Police said they were working through a list of 1,100 suspects whose names were provided by the United States authorities.

Those under investigation were traced because they allegedly used their credit cards to subscribe to US-based child pornography web sites.

Their names appeared on the client list of a US-based Internet company called Landslide Productions, which provided users with access to sites such as “Cyber Lolita” and “Child Rape”.

In more than half of the 822 cases investigated by the Swiss authorities, illegal pornographic material was seized.

Police last month raided numerous buildings as part of the probe, which was coordinated as an international operation to tackle child pornography on the Internet.

Police are now sifting through data stored on 1,147 computers, 16,077 database software such as CD-Roms and diskettes, 4,879 videos and 10,219 publications – images or literature.

The Federal Police Office director Jean-Luc Vez told a press conference in Bern on Thursday that the nationwide search, dubbed “Operation Genesis”, had caused an earthquake in Switzerland.

swissinfo with agencies

Key facts

Seven cases of suspected sexual abuse against children have come to light during a probe into child porn on the Internet.
Police said they were working through a list of 1,100 suspects whose names were provided by the US.
Those under investigation were traced because they allegedly used their credit cards to subscribe to US-based child porn web sites.