LAHORE: A duty judicial magistrate at a district court on Monday discharged a man in a case of playing a role in sharing disinformation that fuelled recent anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots in the UK.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime team presented Farhan Asif before the magistrate on expiry of previous remand and also filed a report for cancellation of the case against the suspect.

The investigating officer stated that the suspect had been found innocent due to lack of evidence to establish the charge against him.

The IO requested the magistrate to discharge the suspect from the FIR 121/2024 registered under Sections 9 and 10(a) of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (Peca) 2016.

He said the investigation found that the suspect just shared the content created by someone else and that too was deleted by him.

Farhan Asif also told the magistrate that he had deleted the content six-hour after he shared it on his website.

Relying on the FIA’s report, the magistrate discharged the suspect from the case and ordered his immediate release.

The FIA personnel un-cuffed the suspect in the courtroom and let him free.

The agency had registered a case against the suspect on charges of glorification of an offence and cyber terrorism.

Initial investigation revealed that Farhan Asif, who has no journalism credentials, worked for a website that earns money through clickbait content.

Investigators said the suspect had also shared photos of a stabbing incident in England on his X account, besides posting an article on the website, holding a 17-year-old Muslim immigrant responsible for the attack.

The suspect was initially taken into custody by Lahore police and later handed over to the FIA cybercrime wing.

UK broadcaster ITV News had previously accused the Lahore-based freelancer of being the source of the content that sparked race riots across the UK, but a BBC investigation and law enforcement analysis suggested that he did not play the primary role in the dissemination of the information, which had been shared by at least two other sources prior to Channel3Now.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024