Appellate court upholds 2-yr prison term for child porn website operator

SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) -- A 26-year-old man responsible for once running one of the world's largest child sexual abuse websites was sentenced to two years in prison by an appellate court on Friday for concealing criminal proceeds.

The appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court upheld a lower court's two-year prison sentence and fine of 5 million won (US$3,800) for Son Jong-woo, who had already completed an 18-month sentence for operating a child sex exploitation website called "Welcome to Video."

Son was given the same sentence by the Seoul district court in July after being convicted of laundering about 400 million won from his Welcome to Video proceeds and using 5.6 million won for online gambling.

Son was released in July 2020 after serving time for uploading and selling more than 250,000 videos of minors being sexually abused through his dark web website.

The United States had requested the extradition of Son but Seoul prosecutors indicted him in February this year on charges of concealment of criminal proceeds after his father filed a criminal complaint.

The father's move was apparently aimed at preventing his son from being extradited to the U.S., as he had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Columbia.

ycm@yna.co.kr
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