

In the Edathy case, this rule has been violated." In contrast, however, Mick Moran, head of Interpol's Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation unit, issued a public warning on Twitter to "MAPs" ("minor-attracted persons") that any sign they were acting upon their sexual orientations, whether the actions were legal or illegal, "demonstrates an escalation of activity by 'MAPs' that must be interpreted as an increased risk to children regardless of the illegality" and that "must result in action by public safety officials." Justice dares not follow he who does nothing illegal. He stated, "Law exists in clear boundaries between permitted and forbidden behavior. The home raid on Edathy when he had only purchased materials classified as legal was criticized in a national newspaper, Die Zeit, in a guest editorial by Thomas Fischer, Chief Judge of the German Federal Court. The passing of secret information regarding the investigation to the MP's party leader resulted in the resignation of the former German Interior Minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich. According to Jörg Fröhlich, public prosecutor in Hannover, Lower Saxony, the raid took place for reason of a higher count of other public prosecutor agencies handling similar cases this way against the account of agencies favoring not to do so when found material would need to be categorized as so-called "II" instead of "I". A German MP appeared on the list since the material he purchased wasn't categorized as clearly illegal, the case was held back pending further investigations, until 10 February 2014, when his house was raided.

įive hundred of the 800 listed persons had purchased unambiguous child pornography according to German legal standards the rest had bought material not considered to be illegal. During 13 months of holding back any investigations it should have been obvious for Federal Criminal Police Office that within the list there were IP-numbers of Deutscher Bundestag with at least several downloads of nude material of boys of the age between 9 and 14 towards the German Bundestag IP-numbers range. The German Federal Criminal Police Office was informed in October 2011, but investigations only started in October 2012, with the list of customers being distributed to the German states' authorities in November 2012.

( February 2014) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. The neutrality of this article is disputed. Alternative news sources had disclosed its existence as early as December. The investigation was officially made public in November 2013. This standardized rating caused controversy, as politicians and members of the UK press later accused the National Crime Agency of negligence. The nudity-only nature of the Azov material caused it to be classified in the UK as level 1 on the COPINE scale for rating images of children, i.e., generally beneath the threshold of legal interest. Inspector Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, of the TPS' Sex Crimes Unit, said, "It's a first for the magnitude of the victims saved" and "the amount of arrests internationally, also a first." Beaven-Desjardins also spoke about materials seized from Way's home: "Officers located hundreds of thousands of images and videos detailing horrific sexual acts against very young children, some of the worst that they have ever viewed." The materials distributed commercially by Azov featured nude athletic and recreational scenes, but not explicit sexual acts. Up to 45 terabytes of images and videos were seized. The Canadian arm of the operation was "Project Spade", in Australia it was "Operation Thunderer". Investigations also spread to Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway. Īpart from Canada, Australia and the United States, authorities in Hong Kong, South Africa, Spain and Sweden were involved. Way is alleged to have earned more than $4 million from his website. Investigations involved more than 50 countries. Postal Inspection Service recreated Way's customer records and shared them with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Interpol. Toronto law enforcement authorities and the U.S. In May 2011 Way's home and office were raided, and he was arrested. Following numerous complaints received by the website cybertip.ca about Azov Films, the investigation began in October 2010 when undercover police made online contact with Brian Way, a 42-year-old man from Toronto and the owner of Toronto-based Azov Films, a firm that distributed DVDs and streaming videos of naked children which it marketed as "naturist."
