A 21 -year -old American citizen who would have been a major player in an online network that targeted children for acts of violence and sexual exploitation faced the extradition after his arrest in the Greek city in the north of Thessaloniki earlier this week.
The suspect, identified by the American authorities like Leonidas Varagiannis, is accused of having played a key role in an online criminal group based in the United States, which bears the name 764, leading his main subgroup “764 Inferno”.
According to the United States Ministry of Justice, the group forced children to commit acts of sexual abuse, which were recorded with “Gore and violent documents” and distributed online.
After his arrest, Varagiannis appeared on Wednesday before a call prosecutor. He denied allegations and officially opposed extradition, according to the Greek judicial authorities and his lawyer.
“Throughout the period during which the alleged offenses took place, it resided in Greece. Consequently, the Greek law and the courts have jurisdiction over the case, and its extradition is explicitly prohibited,” said his lawyer Xanthippi Moysidou.
Varagiannis will remain in detention until a court of the rules on the request for American extradition in the coming weeks.
A second man, identified as Prasan Nepal, 20, was also arrested in April in North Carolina as part of the same investigation, the authorities reported.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating one of the operating companies of the most odious children we have ever met – a network built on terrorism, abuse and deliberate targeting of children,” said US prosecutor Pam Bondi.
The American Ministry of Justice described 764 as an extremist violent nihilist “.
FBI director Kash Patel said the network had been designed “to exploit children and create a guide for online content that they wanted”.
