25-year-old sentenced to 13 years in prison over 'religiously offensive' Facebook post

Rizwan Haider convicted for promoting sectarian hatred

LAHORE: A Pakistani man was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday for allegedly posting religiously offensive material on his Facebook page, lawyers in the case said.

Rizwan Haider, 25, was convicted in an anti-terrorism court of three charges, including promoting sectarian hatred, after he supposedly published a post referring to Prophet Mohammed (pbuh).

"This case... was registered against Haider, who is a Shia Muslim by faith, in January for posting objectionable material against the belief of Sunni Muslims," Adeel Chattah, public prosecutor in the case, told AFP.



He was also fined Rs250,000, Chattah said, adding he denied the charges and has the right to appeal.

His lawyer dismissed the accusations.

"He only liked it and did not post it on the page," Shameem Zaidi said.



Pakistan tightened its hate crime laws as part of a campaign to combat extremism after a Taliban attack at a school in Peshawar in December 2014 killed 153 people, mostly children.

Authorities have arrested and sentenced several religious clerics for hate speech in recent months.

Anti-terrorism court jailed another Shia man for 13 years in November 2015 after he also posted what it deemed sectarian hate speech on Facebook.