Man jailed for 13 years for offensive Facebook post

LAHORE:

An anti-terror court on Thursday sentenced a man to 13-years in prison for hate comments posted on a Facebook page.

Rizwan Haider, 25, was convicted on charges of promoting sectarian hatred, after he supposedly published a post referring to Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him).

“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, the public prosecutor in the case, told AFP.

In addition to the heavy sentence, Haider was also fined Rs250,000. He has the right to appeal. Haider’s lawyer, however, dismissed the accusations. “He only liked it and did not post it on the page.”

In November 2015, a man had been jailed for 13 years after he also posted what was deemed as sectarian hate speech on Facebook.

Rights activists condemned the ruling as “extremely concerning”.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2016.