by diana resnik  & EuroNews
It’s published
Hamburg prosecutors received additional reports from officials after the arrest of the 20-year-old German-Iranian accused of committing suicide through an international online network, officials confirmed.
The prosecutor’s office said an investigation is underway into the potential additional victim of Sharier J, who was arrested in mid-June at his parents’ home in Hamburg’s wealthy Marienthal district, using the online alias “White Tiger.”
Hamburg prosecutor General Jorg Froerich confirmed that the former medical student faces 123 charges including crimes, murder, attempted murder, child sexual abuse and rape allegedly committed between 2021 and 2023.
The arrest first followed FBI hints on child pornography, but police found 85,000 files, over 600 videos and extensive chat records referring to child torture. The accused will be held under strict security at youth prisons on the Hanofelsand Peninsula.
Police suspect that the defendant may have led the international torture network “764.” It is classified as a US terrorist organization. The network, along with victims in Germany, the UK, the US and Canada, allegedly forced children and young people to self-harm for sexual purposes and hurt themselves.
Prosecutors allege that the defendant drove a 13-year-old US citizen to commit suicide by using a Finnish minor as an intermediary in January 2022. The suspect is said to have manipulated a Finnish girl through a “perverse mix of love and light empt expressions” after contacting her in 2021, and forced her to contact a US boy in 2022.
The Finnish minor is said to have met the 13-year-old victim at an online suicide forum in mid-January 2022. Prosecutors shared the acts recorded on an online network of sadistic content, where the defendant joined an Instagram group chat, forced the boy to commit suicide, and online.
“Crime goes beyond human imagination,” Frelich said.
This case presents a complex legal challenge as suicide and suicide-assisted suicide are not punished by German law. The prosecutor must prove that the accused committed “murder in indirect assault.” This means that he committed a crime through another person while he was the main perpetrator.
Legal experts point out that prosecutors must demonstrate victims who lack the free will to qualify as murder rather than suicide aid.
Additional sources •AP
