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Brazilian
Police In Large Operation
Against Child Pornography
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Brazilian Police
In Large Operation
Against Child Pornography
RIio de Janeiro - The
Brazilian Federal Police on Monday arrested
eight people in a large operation against
child pornography through the Internet.
The so-called Operation Turko (an anagram
with the name of social networking website
Orkut) was launched in 20 states and in
Brazil's Federal District. According to
police, 400 officers are taking part in the
operation.
A total of 92 search warrants were issued,
46 of which have already been executed.
Three arrests were made in Sao Paulo state,
two in Rio Grande do Sul, and one each in
Espirito Santo, Mato Grosso and Pernambuco
states.
The names of the arrested were not
disclosed, as investigations are being
carried out secretly. Police also seized
several DVDs and hard disks full of
pornographic materials during the operation.
The Federal Police based the investigations
on over 3,000 accounts on Orkut, which were
reported to NGO Safernet for allegedly
having child pornography content. The police
found pornographic materials in 805 of
those, and managed to identify 107 suspects
of divulging child pornography materials on
the Internet.
The operation was the first since the
agreement signed by the Brazilian government
and Google, which owns Orkut to grant
governmental access to Orkut profiles in
child pornography investigations.
It is also the first large operation since
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva signed a new law which classifies
possession of child pornography material as
a crime. Before this law, only sharing such
material was a crime, which led to policemen
having to release pedophiles when they could
not find proof that the material had been
distributed by the suspects.
The people arrested on Monday would be
charged with possession and distribution of
child pornography. The sentence for
possession is one to four years in jail, and
three to six years for distribution.
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