JAPANESE FOOTBALL OFFICIAL GETS 18-MONTH SUSPENDED JAIL TERM IN FRANCE FOR VIEWING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON FLIGHT
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
A senior official of the Japan Football Association (JFA), Masanaga Kageyama, has been handed an 18-month suspended jail sentence in France after being caught viewing child pornography during a flight.
According to French authorities, the 58-year-old technical director was arrested during a stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris last week while en route to Chile, reportedly for the Under-20 World Cup.
“The facts were discovered by the plane’s flight crew, who raised the alarm after noticing that the convicted man was viewing child pornography images on the plane,” the prosecutor’s office in Bobigny, near Paris, said in a statement to AFP.
Kageyama was sentenced on Monday to an 18-month suspended term and fined €5,000 ($5,830) for importing, possessing, recording, or saving pornographic images of minors under the age of 15.
The court also imposed a 10-year ban on him from working with minors and from entering France, and ordered that his name be added to the national sex offenders’ register.
According to French newspaper Le Parisien, flight attendants observed Kageyama viewing the illicit images on his laptop in the business class cabin of an Air France flight. When questioned, he reportedly claimed to be an artist and said the photos were generated by artificial intelligence.
During his court appearance, Kageyama admitted to viewing the images, expressed shame, and said he did not realise such actions were illegal in France. He was held in police custody over the weekend before being released following his sentencing.
Kageyama, a former professional J-League footballer and coach, has been responsible for implementing youth development and coaching education programs within the JFA, as well as supporting Japan’s national teams.
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