John Leonidou
A Cypress Court remanded in custody for eight days a 33-year-old Russian suspected of trafficking in child pornography.
According to CID Investigator Marios Nicolettis, the suspect, who for the past two years has been a permanent resident of Cyprus, had created his own website that channeled and stored pornographic pictures of minors.
When police officials raided his Yermasoyia home, the suspect was in the process of upgrading his website.
During the raid, officers found three computers and a large number of CDs featuring explicit pictures and video clips of minors.
Police were tipped off on the case by a message from the Canadian Interpol Department, who informed the Cypriot authorities that a website featuring child porn had been set up from Limassol.
"According to our preliminary investigations, the suspect was also operating a further six websites of a similar nature and earning well from the loyal subscribers of his business," Nicolettis told the court.
He added: "We are currently investigating whether some of the minors in the material might be from Cyprus, while police have also managed to recognise one of the victims - a child that was part of a paedophile ring in the United States."
The investigator told the court that "we have not ruled out the possibility that the suspect may be in league with other individuals, most likely Cypriots, and that more arrests could occur in the next few days."
Police will be taking around 45 statements in the case.
This is the second such arrest in the past few months, made by police after co-operation with foreign agencies.
Last August, a municipality employee was arrested after around 200,000 pornographic videos and pictures involving children were found on computers at his work and home.
The 45-year-old father of three was caught after Interpol in Germany intercepted the IP address on his computer downloading a video containing child pornography.
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