MAN PLEADS GUILITY TO THE PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORTING OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY INTO THE USA

ALEXANDRIA – United States Attorney Paul J. McNulty announced that Burhan Mahmod Hinawi, age 44, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pled guilty today to a one count criminal information charging him with production of child pornography outside the United States and transporting child pornography into the USA. Hinawi is scheduled to be sentenced on January 20, 2006, by Senior District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton. He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years imprisonment.

Court documents allege that Hinawi produced videos of himself engaging in various sexual acts with male and female children between the ages of 12 and 15. Hinawi remains in custody pending sentencing.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant United States Attorney Gerald Smagala.

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/12204284.htm

U.S. accuses man of taping child sex acts

Authorities say suspect from Charlotte was on video with children

MELISSA MANWARE

Staff Writer

A southeast Charlotte man has been accused of videotaping himself in sex acts with children and then trying to smuggle the child pornography into the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Burhan Mahmod Hinawi, 43, was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on Monday after customs agents inspected homemade videos and a laptop computer in his baggage.

They found several recordings of Hinawi engaging in sex acts with boys and girls who appear to be between 12 and 15 years old, according to a sworn affidavit. The recordings look like they were made by Hinawi, the affidavit also says.

Hinawi, who lives on Carlsbad Court in the Sardis Oaks neighborhood, also uses the first name Tony. He was traveling back to the United States from

Damascus, Syria

. He had flown there about a month earlier.

Investigators believe the explicit videos were made in Syria but have not confirmed that, said Allan Doody, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Hinawi is a convicted sex offender, though his conviction came before North Carolina required registration.

In 1993, he pleaded guilty in Mecklenburg County to felony indecent liberties with a child, court records show. He was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to spend Saturdays in jail for six months, the records show.

Doody, who described Hinawi's actions as "despicable," said Hinawi is being held in a Washington, D.C. jail. If convicted, he could be sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. The affidavit, filed in support of the charges, says agents found footage of Hinawi engaged in sex acts with children on the homemade videos and on the computer.

It also says in at least one video, the person holding the camera appears to place it in a fixed position, then Hinawi peers into the lens at close range before getting on a bed and engaging in sex acts with a boy.

At one point in the footage, the affidavit says, a very small child can be seen drinking from a bottle on the same bed in which Hinawi is engaging in sexual acts with a boy.

-- STAFF RESEARCHER SARA KLEMMER AND WCNC CONTRIBUTED.

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