A Chinese national who was arrested earlier this month at San Francisco International Airport pleaded not guilty on Thursday to child pornography charges, prosecutors said.

Minghong Xia, a Chinese national who lives in San Francisco on a work permit, was arrested April 17 at SFO after investigators determined he had child pornography on his laptop, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

Authorities had learned of a possible intent to distribute illicit material through a peer-to-peer software system from an apartment in San Francisco, but an investigation of the apartment yielded no evidence, the district attorney’s office said.

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Police learned that the suspect was in Seattle for work and had all of his digital devices with him. After learning he was on his way back to San Francisco, authorities obtained a search warrant for Xia and his belongings. He was detained at SFO and his laptop was found to have hundreds of child pornography images, including a child under 10 years old, prosecutors said.

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Xia was taken into custody on $100,000 bail, prosecutors said. His next court appearance is on May 9, the Bay City News Service reported.