German prosecutors file sex tourism charges .
BERLIN 1996-08-28
Berlin prosecutors said on Wednesday they had filed charges against two German men for sexually abusing children in Thailand and distributing pornographic films and pictures of their degrading acts .
The case is one of only a handful in which authorities have managed to track down suspects under a law which lets them pursue Germans who commit sex offences abroad .
The pair , identified only as 43-year-old clerk Dieter U and businessman Thomas S , 33 , are alleged to have carried out acts of sexual indecency with children as young as 10 years old between 1994 and 1995 .
Their videos included pictures of one of the accused tying up a Thai boy and performing acts of sadistic torture on him , prosecutors said in a statement .
In another scene , a young girl performed oral sex with an unidentified adult man .
The new law was introduced with much fanfare in 1993 .
But prosecutors face huge difficulties in gathering evidence and bringing witnesses to testify in a German court , and only one person has so far been convicted under the law .
Investigators are probing several other cases .
The Berlin prosecutors said they had been alerted to the two men by customs officials who intercepted packages containing pornographic photographs and order forms .