The international police organization, Interpol, said, police trying to crack an international child-pornography ring flourishing on the Internet arrested 12 people yesterday and seized computers and large quantities of data in 10 countries. The sweep was part of Operation Artus, coordinated by Interpol, which is based in the southeastern French city of Lyon.
(Paris, France)
Amnon Chemouil, a 47-year-old Frenchman, is accused of raping a 12-year-old child while he was on vacation in Thailand in 1994. On Friday he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. He could have faced up to 20 years but prosecutors asked for a 10-year sentence. He has also been ordered to pay $6,385 in damages to the victim. This was a successful conclusion for prosecutors in their first attempt to crack down on French travelers who go overseas to sexually exploit children.
(Paris)
Some 20 girls aged 13 to 15 had been raped in and around Paris by a serial rapist who posed as a police officer. Police are hunting the rapist who lured teen-age girls to secluded areas and then attacked them over the past 18 months. The man usually chooses his victims as they leave school and follows them. According to the Associated Press, once the victim reaches home, he pretends to be a police officer searching for drugs and would lead the girl into a basement or underground parking area
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who is head of the French Greens party and a leading figure in 1960’sprotest movements, has denied that he once molested children despite writing and article as a youngman alluding to intimate encounters with minors. He used to work in a kindergarten and later wroteabout how flirtation with young children in his care had taken on an erotic character. He toldFrance Inter radio that the 1975 published article contained passages, which were unbearablyflippant, but said they bore no relation to reality. Cohn-Bendit said, No, I never had sexualrelations