The investigation started in 2000, when the police learnt that pornographic images under the titles “Pig Madonna” and “Blasphemy” were published on the web sites. The five web sites were created in Rome and hosted by US-based ISPs.
The police raided the premises in Rome from which the content had been uploaded. The illegal material has now been replaced by the crest of the special police unit involved.
A spokesman for Italian police said:
“We blocked out these sites because they tied a festival of blasphemy with distasteful sexual images in which they mixed the name of God, the name of the Madonna, with religious cursing. But this wasn’t enough, they then went on to showing a nun in suggestive clothes or other things in poor taste.”
A man was arrested in Rome, however it is not yet clear what the charges against him might be. Cursing has been decriminalised in Italy, but publishing or broadcasting blasphemous material can still be prosecuted.
It is not the first time that European authorities have attempted to block illegal material posted on web sites hosted in other countries.
A French court ordered Yahoo! to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia on its US web site – that case is ongoing in both the US and France. Also, the German authorities have decided that racist material posted on web sites targeting German audiences should be prosecuted under the country’s law.