In the dock: Zobaidul being brought to the Sessions Court in Seremban. — Screengrab photo from TV3
SEREMBAN: A medical student from Bangladesh has pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court here to 12 charges of producing and possessing child pornography.
The case, which was a joint investigation with the United States’ FBI, saw Zobaidul Amin, 24, a private university student, being brought before judge Surita Budin.
For the first eight charges under Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Against Children 2017, he was accused of directing or producing child pornography using the Snapchat app.
For the next four charges under Section 10, he was accused of being in possession of 740 digital images containing child pornography on his mobile phone, USB drive, and hard disk.
He allegedly committed the offences at a house in Bukit Rasah, near here, between Oct 26, 2021, and Sept 19 this year.
Deputy public prosecutor Zahida Zakaria urged the court not to allow bail as the alleged offences were serious.
She said that should bail be granted, the accused would probably produce more child pornography or harass the victims.
Counsel for the accused, Harvindar Singh, asked the court to allow bail.
Surita then allowed a bail of RM8,000 for each offence in two sureties, and told the accused to report to the nearest police station every month and not to harass the victims or witnesses.
She also fixed Nov 30 for mention.
On Wednesday, police secretary Deputy Comm Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin said that the suspect was arrested on Sept 19 in Seremban following a joint investigation with the FBI.
She said investigations showed that the suspect had allegedly used social media to communicate with and trap his victims.
All the victims were found to have been from overseas.
