Ukraine says suspect in porn case is innocent
Source: Agencies |
June 13, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
UKRAINANIAN authorities yesterday cast doubt on child-pornography charges brought by US prosecutors against a Ukrainian national, saying local investigators have found no evidence of a crime.
Maksym Shynkarenko, 33, from the eastern city of Kharkiv, was charged in New Jersey on Monday with founding and operating a Ukraine-based child-pornography website that had customers around the world and has resulted in 560 convictions throughout the United States alone.
A 32-count indictment against Shynkarenko says he traded in tens of thousands of hardcore pornographic images and videos that depicted children, including infants, toddlers and teenagers, being graphically sexually assaulted or abused.
Paul Fishman, the US attorney for New Jersey, said that in some cases the videos were submitted by customers - later prosecuted - who had filmed themselves molesting children.
Shynkarenko was extradited to the US from Thailand over the weekend, where he had been in custody since his 2009 arrest while he was on vacation. The case is being brought in New Jersey because US investigators first discovered Shynkarenko's website while investigating another individual in the state.
Fishman said Shynkarenko allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars "effectively selling tickets to view the exploitation of children" from 2003 until 2008 by operating a network of websites.
But Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dikusarov said local investigators had found no merit to the charges against Shynkarenko.
"Our law enforcement bodies have investigated this and did not find anything," Dikusarov said. "We will be defending the rights of our citizen."
Shynkarenko's mother says her son was mistaken for another man with the same name.
Maksym Shynkarenko, 33, from the eastern city of Kharkiv, was charged in New Jersey on Monday with founding and operating a Ukraine-based child-pornography website that had customers around the world and has resulted in 560 convictions throughout the United States alone.
A 32-count indictment against Shynkarenko says he traded in tens of thousands of hardcore pornographic images and videos that depicted children, including infants, toddlers and teenagers, being graphically sexually assaulted or abused.
Paul Fishman, the US attorney for New Jersey, said that in some cases the videos were submitted by customers - later prosecuted - who had filmed themselves molesting children.
Shynkarenko was extradited to the US from Thailand over the weekend, where he had been in custody since his 2009 arrest while he was on vacation. The case is being brought in New Jersey because US investigators first discovered Shynkarenko's website while investigating another individual in the state.
Fishman said Shynkarenko allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars "effectively selling tickets to view the exploitation of children" from 2003 until 2008 by operating a network of websites.
But Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Dikusarov said local investigators had found no merit to the charges against Shynkarenko.
"Our law enforcement bodies have investigated this and did not find anything," Dikusarov said. "We will be defending the rights of our citizen."
Shynkarenko's mother says her son was mistaken for another man with the same name.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
