Top court upholds man’s suspended sentence for introducing online child porn site

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a man convicted of introducing the URL of a child porn website, upholding lower court rulings that sentenced him to a suspended eight-month prison term and fined him ¥300,000, legal sources said Wednesday.

Defendant Yoshiki Kaihara, 53, posted the URL of the Russian site on a web page managed by his 51-year-old accomplice between January and March 2007, according to lower court rulings.

The two were accused of violating the Act on Punishment of Activities Relating to Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. A guilty verdict against Kaihara’s accomplice, whose name was not provided, has already been finalized.

Among the five justices on the top court’s Third Bench, two expressed dissenting opinions, arguing that what the defendant did can be interpreted as merely aiding the public display of child porn images and that he should not be punished as the principal perpetrator.

The Japan Times, July 12, 2012
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