LAHORE, Pakistan, Aug 26 (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on Monday cleared a local man of cybercrime charges related to the dissemination of false online information that incited riots in Britain, according to his lawyer.
The riots erupted following the circulation of misleading online content falsely implicating an Islamist immigrant in the murder of three young girls in a stabbing incident in the northern English town of Southport in late July. Farhan Asif, who managed a web publication, was apprehended in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore and charged last week by the country's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
"He has been exonerated in the investigation," his lawyer Rana Rizwan Akhtar informed Reuters TV, stating that the investigation agency lacked evidence to substantiate that his client engaged in any unlawful activities. The court exonerated the defendant after the agency presented its report, Akhtar added. Asif had furnished the agency with all his social media accounts and access to all his devices.
The accused had published an article on his X social media account alleging that the assailant was a Muslim immigrant and had also disseminated images of the killings, as per the case filed against him.
