Image: Yonhap News
Son Jong-woo, the operator of Welcome to Video, one of the world's biggest child pornography sites that ran on the dark web, has avoided extradition to the United States.
The Seoul High Court on Monday decided against extraditing the 24-year-old man saying the move could potentially hamper South Korea's investigation into sexually exploitative content.
The court said, "The decision should not be interpreted as exonerating Son," adding that he should actively cooperate with authorities and face proper punishment.
Son was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in August 2018 on nine counts for his operation of the illicit site.
He was arrested in Korea in March 2018 and convicted of generating and distributing exploitative content for fees paid using the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Local law enforcement found he had approximately eight terabytes of child sexual assault videos.
Son finished serving an 18-month prison term in April but was taken back into custody after an arrest warrant was issued for potential U.S. extradition.
International authorities worked together to chase down the users of Son's site and arrested 337 people around the world, including 223 Koreans.
At least 23 underage victims abused by the site's users were rescued.
Please send comments to tbsefmnews@gmail.com / copyright © tbs. Unauthorized redistribution prohibited.
