By DPA
Berlin : Up to 12,000 people could face charges of possessing child pornography following a major police campaign in Germany, media reports said Monday.
More than 300 people in the east German state of Saxony Anhalt alone could face charges following a long-running German-wide police action against child pornography, a prosecutor’s office spokesman said, confirming a report in the daily Mitteldeutschen Zeitung.
The police said Friday that about 1,700 people across Germany have been accused of possessing child pornographic material.
The police action, code named Heaven, has lasted several months with officers having seized a large amount of material.
German public radio reported Monday that the number of suspects could total as many as 12,000.
The charges follow investigations into an Internet operator based in Berlin that registered a heavy traffic in data.