German fugitive claims US discrimination forced him to abscond

A German national who is fighting an extradition to the United States on child pornography charges, said it was "discrimination and an unjust system" that led to him abscond his captors and removing a tracking device, to finally make it to Malta.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri this morning heard the accused take the witness stand and recount his reasons for absconding. "Breaching bail was not something I just thought of. It was well planned and I neither left America nor entered Europe illegally," the German said.

The man is wanted in the USA, to face charges of distributing child pornography.

"I have no family in the United States and having moved there when I was  30 years old, I was looked upon as being different. I was discriminated against both socially and personally. I neither looked nor sounded American. Together with my wife I decided to return to Europe where I belong," he said

Questioned by the prosecution, the fugitive said he did not remember the names of other people who were investigated in connection with his case abroad. He claimed that as far as he knew, no one implicated in his case had been convicted. He also said he could not remember the names of those who were in his therapy group.

Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dinech informed the court that two men who had been investigated on similar charges in the same investigation on the man, had indeed pleaded guilty to the charges and received convictions.

The man's wife Laura took the stand, saying the couple were married in Germany back in 1998, and in 2002 left for the US. She said the couple had no other relatives, apart from Germany, where her husband's family lived.

Deputy Attorney General Donatella Frendo Dimech said the offence of child pornography was extraditable if it carried a punishment of over 12 months' imprisonment in both countries. "In this instance, the charges he faces carry between five to 20 years' imprisonment in the USA, which same offence is punishable with four to nine years in Malta."

The man was intercepted in an FBI sting that managed to bypass security checks on legitimate websites to search for perpetrators disseminating child pornography. The FBI identified a number of emails, two of which contained vast explicit conversations of a sexual nature. In one of the emails, bearing his mobile number, the wanted man was said to have demanded the sexual preference of another person. The email is followed up with images and videos of children engaging in sexual activities and bestiality. Other emails include conversations in which the parties admited to having engaged in sexual relations with minors.

A search in the man's residence by the FBI produced a laptop that contained various chat conversations and emails through which child pornography had been disseminated.

Frendo Dimech said that the claims of discrimination should have been addressed in an American civil court. "Instead he chose to dump his tracking device and run away."

The defence argued that the documents sent by the US prosecutors do not identify him as the wanted person. "The documents imply he was using aliases and that he was in possession of a Dutch passport, which turns out not to be the case. The American evidence also highlights a passport number, which was never found," Lucio Schiriha said.

The defence contended that the man took his laptop to work, in a public area where everybody could access it. "The fact that emails were found on his laptop does not imply that he sent those emails."

Schiriha also told the court to consider that if extradited, he would be alone in the United States, and that his wife would not be granted entry to the country. "Without any family and no means to support himself, he will lead a life of hardship. Together with the discrimination he faces, this will bar him from living a decent life."

Magistrate Neville Camilleri scheduled the case for 8 July for sentencing.