Police officers of the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Srpska in cooperation with members of the Police Department of Bijeljina, as well as police officers of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia and the Ministry of the Interior of the Tuzla Canton, and under the supervision of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bijeljina, are implementing the international action “Karika” aimed at detecting and proving criminal acts in the field of protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation on the Internet.
In the operation, six persons were arrested today – BA and PD from Bijeljina, DT from Lopar, DN from Ugljevik, EM from Gradačac and BV from Serbia, for whom there are grounds for suspicion that in the past period of time they have committed the criminal offenses of “Using a computer network or communication by other technical means to commit criminal acts of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child” from Article 178, “Exploiting children for pornography” from Article 175 and “Introducing children to pornography” from Article 177 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Srpska.
According to the orders of the competent courts, searches were carried out at seven locations of residential buildings, vehicles and movable property in the area of Bijeljina, Ugljevik, Lopar and Gradačac, which were found to be used by persons linked to the above-mentioned crimes. During the search, the means of committing a criminal offense were found and confiscated, namely: computers, tablets, mobile phones, memory cards and other devices for storing digital data, as well as other items that can be linked to the commission of a criminal offense.
The aforementioned criminal acts were committed in such a way that in the past period of time, the suspects entered into communication with children aged 13 and 14 through social networks and communication applications, then led the children to create content of child pornography, that is, they asked the children to take photos of themselves without clothes, describing in detail how to take photos of intimate parts of the body.
Also, the aforementioned persons introduced children to pornography, sending them photographic and video material of pornographic content. Through communication, using applications, they tried and arranged meetings with children for the purpose of sexual intercourse. In addition to the above, the suspects used social networks and communication applications to access groups where child pornography content was shared.
The age of the children whose material was shared was 13 to 14 years old. Individuals are also suspected of having created a storage area on remote infrastructures for storing digital data that was under their control, after which they repeatedly stored child pornography content on the aforementioned storage areas.
After the criminal investigation, the person will be handed over to the competent prosecutor’s office with a report on the crimes committed.
(TIP/Source: federalna.ba)
