Srdjan Arnaut, Bosnian Deputy Justice Minister said it was "for those who deal
with this problem, police, prosecutors, judges to initiate procedure to solve
this issue. A law that would regulate possession of child pornography is not
being prepared," at the moment, he said.
Austrian authorities in February uncovered a major international child
pornography ring involving more than 2,360 suspects from 77 countries,
including Bosnia, who paid to view videos of young children being sexually
abused.
"If there are Bosnian suspects in the Austrian child porno case, the
investigation is doomed as Bosnia does not have a law and possession of child
porn is unfortunately still not illegal here," Oleg Cavka, spokesman for the
Sarajevo prosecutor's office told The Associated Press.
Austrian authorities said that the FBI was investigating about 600 of the
suspects in the United States. German authorities were following leads on
another 400 people, France was looking into more than 100 others, and 23
suspects were Austrians, they said.
Cavka said that Interpol has said that several Bosnians are under investigation
as well. He added that under the current law in Bosnia only distributing child
pornography can be punished.
"Bosnian police are cooperating with Austrian police in this case but little
can be done as we do not have a law to prosecute them," police spokesman Robert
Cvrtak said.
The majority of Bosnians were not informed that it is legal to possess child
porn and were shocked to learn of it from the media.
"Saying that I am shocked does not even describe my feelings. It is disgusting.
If there is any moral in our politicians and law makers we have to pass this
law urgently," Enisa Hadarevic, 40 year-old school teacher said.
