An additional district and sessions court on Thursday awarded five-year jail term to a worker of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for his 'anti-army' post on a social media platform, following a military helicopter crash in Lasbela district of Balochistan last year.
The judge also imposed Rs250,000 on the convict, Sikandar Zaman, 30, over his ‘derogatory’ tweet. The court said in the judgment that the accused intended to spread panic in society through the social media posts against the army.
Following the army helicopter crash in August 2022, in which six senior military officer were martyred, the convict made a derogatory post on his Twitter account.
Consequently, a first information report (FIR) was registered against him on August 18 under sections 20 and 24C of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) and sections 500 and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The man was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agemcy (FIA) Cyber Crime Circle, Faisalabad, and tried by the additional district and sessions judge on charges of sharing derogatory tweets regarding the martyrs of the Lasbela helicopter incident.
On August 1, 2022, an army helicopter crashed in Lasbela due to bad weather while on a flood relief mission in Balochistan. All the six officers onboard the ill-fated helicopter, including Commander 12 Corps Lt-Gen Sarfaraz Ali, were martyred.
After the crash, a section of social media activists and certain political zealots launched an abhorrent online campaign to vent their personal and political malice, which drew a strong reaction from all walks of life.
The FIA then sprung into action and constituted a four-member team tasked with pointing out, arresting and taking legal action against those running the malicious campaign.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Munsif Khan convicted Sikandar and awarded three-year jail term along with a fine of Rs50,000 under Section 505 of the PPC, which is related to public mischief.
Similarly, the convict was awarded one-year jail term along with Rs100,000 fine under Section 20 of PECA, which criminalises the wilful transmission of malicious code.
A similar sentence was awarded to him under Section 24(C) of PECA, which relates to the offences committed in relation to information system. In case of non-payment of the fines, he would undergo another jail term of three months each.
The court ruled that all the sentences would run concurrently. After the sentencing, the convict, who was on bail, had been taken into custody and sent to the District Jail, Faisalabad to suffer the sentence awarded to him.
According to the Pakistan Lawyers Forum (PLF), the number of followers on the Twitter account of the convicted citizen is 184. The police had also seized Sikandar’s Twitter account and mobile phone.
(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)
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