THESSALONIKI, Greece — A court in Greece has rejected an U.S. extradition request for a 21-year-old American man wanted in connection with an online network that is alleged to have targeted children for acts of violence and sexual exploitation. Court officials in the northern city of Thessaloniki said Wednesday that the claim was rejected because the suspect has applied for and is eligible to receive Greek citizenship. He was due to be released from custody this week. A panel of judges upheld the claim “that the extradition of a Greek national is forbidden, acknowledging his Greek citizenship by virtue of being the child of a Greek parent,” the suspect’s lawyer Xanthippi Moisidou told The Associated Press.
The suspect, who maintains his innocence, was arrested in April, accused by U.S. authorities of being involved in the criminal online group known as 764 that coerced children into committing acts of violence and sexual abuse, which were recorded and distributed online.
A second man was arrested in North Carolina days earlier as part of the same investigation.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had described the suspects as being responsible for “a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children.”