Man held for ‘child pornography, extorting US minors’ remanded in FIA custody

A judicial magistrate on Wednesday remanded a suspect in the Federal Investigation Agency's custody for five days in a case pertaining to child phonography and misuse of "personal / objectionable" data of minor US citizens for extortion.

Investigation Officer Ameer Ali Khoso presented the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq and requested his physical remand for interrogation. He stated that the suspect was involved in child pornography and misuse of personal / objectionable data of US minors. He said the suspect was required to be interrogated about the modus operandi, requesting the court to grant his physical remand.

The magistrate granted five days' physical remand of the suspect with a direction to the IO to produce him on March 18. According to the FIR, the FIA Cyber Crime Circle Karachi launched an inquiry on a request by the US consulate general in Karachi for action against a Pakistani citizen allegedly involved in extorting a minor US citizen.

During the course of inquiry, it said that the suspect's mobile phone number was found to be registered in the name of Agha Sarwar. After a permission by the court, an FIA team raided the suspect's residence and seized digital gadgets in his use, it added.

An initial technical analysis of the seized devices revealed the presence of child pornographic material, including videos of the US minor, as well as threatening messages, the FIA said, adding that the suspect used an ipad and a laptop to communicate with the minor through various adult websites and video and texting chatrooms.

During further course of interrogation, the suspect admitted to his involvement in child pornography and the misuse of personal / objectionable data belonging to US citizens who were minors, said the FIR. He had hidden his real identity and pretended to be a US citizen named Brandon Liechier.

It said that he confessed to using personal data, including recorded videos of minor US citizens, which he obtained through various websites and applications for the purpose of blackmail.