St. Louis County Man Sanel Smajlovic Found Guilty on All Counts for Paying to Watch the Sexual Abuse of Children in the Philippines
ST. LOUIS — Sanel Smajlovic, 37, of St. Louis County, Missouri, has been found guilty on all counts he faced for paying to watch the sexual abuse of children in the Philippines, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri announced. A jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis convicted him on Wednesday of four counts of attempted sexual exploitation of children, two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of soliciting child pornography, for conduct that occurred between 2017 and 2019.
Evidence and testimony at trial showed that Smajlovic communicated with traffickers hundreds of times and sent money to the Philippines dozens of times to adults who sexually abused six victims at his direction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson told jurors in closing arguments that Smajlovic sought out vulnerable children living in poverty and other desperate circumstances. Court-approved searches of his electronic devices uncovered 36 videos and thousands of images containing child sexual abuse material. He was arrested at St. Louis Lambert International Airport after returning from a trip to Romania.
The investigation began when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, identified traffickers in the Philippines who were live streaming the sexual abuse of children to paying customers worldwide. The Justice Department said related operations have rescued 395 children, made 359 arrests and dismantled 78 child trafficking networks; two traffickers who communicated with Smajlovic were arrested and the child victims rescued.
Smajlovic's sentencing date has not yet been set. The attempted sexual exploitation charges carry 15 to 30 years in prison, and the receiving and soliciting child pornography charges carry five to 20 years. HSI investigated the case with assistance from the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jillian Anderson and Colleen Lang are prosecuting the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, the Justice Department's nationwide initiative launched in May 2006.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于Washington的美国司法部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼（司法部总部；本案由司法部密苏里东区联邦检察官办公室发布，当事人无官方照片，资料图）。APK摄，CC BY 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons。 / The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice (file photo; the case was announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri). Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
