A Grahamstown man has been granted bail after appearing in the city's magistrate's court on Thursday on charges of the possession, manufacture and distribution of child pornography.
The man, who's name is known to Algoa FM News, is reportedly the owner of guesthouses in Grahamstown and Port Alfred.
He was arrested on Wednesday as part of an international probe involving the FBI into a child porn ring that allegedly had its roots in South Africa.
Seven people have also been arrested in the United States.
Officials said as many as 600 American children, aged between eight and 13, had allegedly been tricked into engaging in sexually explicit activity on web cameras through the South African-based website
The Provincial Head of the Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit in Gauteng, Lieutenant-Colonel Heila Niemand, says the suspect was granted bail of R40 000.
and he will appear in court again on the 28th of April.
"The investigation actually started in America and then they just out of their investigation identified that the creator of this website is in South Africa. So, they sent us the leads and the specific IP addresses where we then assisted with the investigation and followed up the information," she said.
"It brought us to a specific address in Grahamstown whereby we conducted a search yesterday (Weds) and arrested the suspect," said added.
Niemand told Algoa FM News that the FBI want to bring an application for the suspect to be extradited to the United States.
"The FBI really wants to prosecute him in America seeing that more than 600 victims were actually sexually exploited through this specific website. They would like to charge him for this in the United States of America," Niemand added.
