Pakistani police have arrested a man and charged him with cyber terrorism for his alleged role in spreading misinformation that led to widespread rioting in the UK earlier this month, a senior police investigator said Wednesday.
The suspect was identified as Farhan Asif, 32, a freelance web developer, said Imran Kishwar, deputy inspector general of investigations in Lahore, the capital of eastern Punjab province.
The man is accused of spreading misinformation from YouTube and Facebook about the British teenage suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three girls and injured 10 other people July 29 at a dance class in Southport.
The false information claimed that the suspect was a recently arrived asylum-seeker and had a name that suggested the teenager was a Muslim.
Rioting broke out in England and Northern Ireland after the fatal stabbing attack which left dozens of police officers injured and more than a thousand arrests.
At a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore, police said Asif was arrested at his house in the city for questioning.
They said Asif has claimed that he was not the source of the misinformation but that he reposted it from social media.
Police have handed over the case to the Federal Investigation Agency, which handles cases relating to cyber terrorism.
It was unclear if Britain had requested his extradition.
This is a breaking news story, more follows…
