2023-08-11 15:46:00
A Belgian investigator participated for three weeks in an international work team in Washington, the federal police announced on Friday in a press release. It was organized by the American service Homeland Security Investigations. The goal: to identify victims and perpetrators appearing in online child abuse images. Operation name? Operation Renewed Hope. Members of the FBI, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Interpol, Europol and various other police agencies around the world were also brought together.
“All participating countries provided images from thorny issues in the hope of unlocking the investigation through knowledge contributed by other participants. By examining details in the images, such as the landscapes in the background or the language used, the investigators tried to locate the facts. The joint expertise of investigators from fourteen different countries has made it possible to potentially identify victims, perpetrators and places“, explains the Belgian federal police.
The operation has already yielded results. 311 victims have potentially been identified, according to the press release. The information will now be transmitted to the countries concerned to continue the investigations. “A number of new avenues will therefore also be examined in Belgium. Several arrests have already taken place in the United States and Canada. In the weeks and months to come, other victims will probably be saved from situations of abuse thanks to this international cooperation.“, concludes the federal police.
In Belgium, information concerning two cases has been received. These”will have to be verified and confirmed by local surveys“, added the federal police.
For its part, the Homeland Security Investigations recalls the results obtained in 2022: the identification and/or the rescue of 1,170 children and the arrest of 4,459 people.
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