Facebook hate speech: Pak sentences man to 13 years

Lahore, Nov 23: A Pakistani man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an anti-terrorism court for posting a sectarian "hate speech" on Facebook.

Saqlain Haider, 32, was arrested on a complaint that he posted hateful sectarian material on October 27. He has also been fined with Rs 2,50,000 on three counts.

"We arrested Saqlain who subsequently confessed to his crime," he said, adding during the court proceedings the prosecutors presented witnesses and evidence against the accused. "

The ATC Faisalabad found him guilty on three counts and handed him down compound 13 years in jail," the official said.

Saqlain is a resident of Lalian, Chinoit district, some 200 kilometers from Lahore, and a trader by profession.

Last year district and session court in Toba Tek Singh, some 180 kilometers from here, gave death sentence to a Christian couple for sending blasphemous text messages to local Muslim clerics and shopkeepers.

The couple, however, denied sending the blasphemous messages, pleading innocent.

PTI