China's first Internet sex crime trial, which authorities call the 99BBS case, is scheduled to begin May 11.
The case involves 12 suspects arrested around the country in 2004, after authorities pursued them for over a month and finally forced them to close down their websites, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua. They were accused of using offshore computers to run the sites while operating in over a dozen provinces and cities with more than 300,000 registered users, according to published reports.
The Ministry of Public Security and the Anhui Provincial Department of Public Security have described the 99BBS case as the biggest of its kind, involving the most registered users – a reported 400 million plus – to be "cracked by public security bureaus."
Xinhua said the case also involved the largest number of webmasters and staffers arrested, "involving the most serious pornographic material," though the actual number was not disclosed.
"It is the first case cracked by Chinese authorities that concerns Internet pornography perpetuated by criminals inside and outside China," the news agency said.
Three months ago, China was said to have closed down more than 12,000 Internet cafes, most before the official crackdown launch last July, while several reports have also indicated it wasn't just Internet porn the Communist government was concerned about, not with concurrent weblog closures involving blogs known to be critical of the government.
