Man Pleads Guilty to Multiple Child Exploitation Offenses

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good evening, everyone. I am honored to be here tonight to present the Act To Change Allied Organization of the Year award to AAPI Youth Rising. This award recognizes the organization’s leadership and continued efforts in advancing the rights and well-being of AAPI youth across the country.

This work could not be more timely or more urgent. One of our highest priorities at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has been to confront the rising tide of hate directed at the AAPI community. We have prosecuted those who have committed hate crimes, including securing a 25-year prison sentence for the man who attacked an Asian-American family with a knife at a Sam’s Club in Midland, Texas, because he blamed them for the COVID-19 pandemic. We also prosecuted a man who recently pled guilty after threatening to injure an Asian-American doctor in Maryland who had been a vocal proponent of the COVID-19 vaccine. And just last week, we charged a Nevada..

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 22, 2023
Man Convicted of Torture and Exporting Weapons Parts and Related Services to Iraq
A federal jury convicted a Pennsylvania man on May 19 for numerous crimes, including the torture of an Estonian citizen in 2015 in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in connection with the operation of an illegal weapons manufacturing plant in Kurdistan.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ross Roggio, 54, of Stroudsburg, arranged for Kurdish soldiers to abduct and detain the victim at a Kurdish military compound where Roggio suffocated the victim with a belt, threatened to cut off one of his fingers, and directed Kurdish soldiers to repeatedly beat, tase, choke, and otherwise physically and mentally abuse the victim over a 39-day period. The victim was employed at a weapons factory that Roggio was developing in the Kurdistan region of Iraq that was intended to manufacture M4 automatic rifles and Glock 9mm pistols.

In connection with th..