The association of female lawyers in South Korea has criticized a local court's decision to turn down a request by U.S. authorities to hand over a man convicted of running one of the world's biggest child pornography sites. 

In a statement on Wednesday, the Korean Women Lawyers Association expressed its regret over the Seoul High Court's ruling the previous day on Son Jong-woo, the operator of a South Korea-based child pornography site operating on the dark web that sold videos to pedophiles around the world for digital cash. 

The association said that the court's decision falls far short of the South Korean judiciary’s resolve to eradicate digital sex crimes and accused the court of being too lenient in the pretext of judiciary sovereignty. 

They also took issue with the court’s verdict that keeping the convicted person inside Korea will help facilitate related domestic investigations and pointed out that he cannot be prosecuted again in the local court as he served his out his prison term on respective charges. 

They said that given the nature of digital sex crimes, the case involving Son requires international judiciary cooperation. 

The 24-year-old finished serving an 18-month prison term in April, but was taken back into custody pending a decision over his extradition following a request by the U.S. Department of Justice. He was released on Monday after the court's decision.