Beijing law enforcement officers have been forced to drop charges against a housewife who organized online chats in the nude as there is no basis in law to prosecute her.

Judicial authorities in Shijinshan, a district in west Beijing, announced that they recently withdrew charges against the 36-year-old woman surnamed Li who was charged almost three years ago with "organizing pornographic activities".

Prosecutors said in July 2004 Li took off all her clothes and chatted with people using her webcam. She later organized online chats for nudists.

Beijing's Internet police discovered the chatrooms and LI was arrested by local police. Asked why she chatted with no clothes on, Li said she was "seeking excitement".

Law officers soon discovered they were facing a legal "blind spot" as nude chat rooms were not defined in China's pornography laws.

In September 2004, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation on pornographic activities on the Internet but it didn't include live webcam chats.

Prosecutor Li Kai in Shijinshan admitted his office couldn't prove that Li had committed the criminal act of disseminating pornographic materials.

"Under the existing laws, it is inappropriate to treat this as a criminal offence," he said.

The Shijinshan district court found there was little legal basis for the charge and threw the case out of court.

Wang Xinhuan, a law PhD and official with the Beijing municipal procuratorate said, "The judicial interpretation on Internet pornographic activities is incomplete due to the insufficient knowledge of the legislators. An amendment is needed to remove the loophole."

Source: Xinhua