T

he Pekanbaru District Court in Riau has sentenced M. Abdullah Harsono, a member and administrator of the Saracen online news syndicate, to two years and eight months in prison for creating and spreading hoax news in exchange for money.

The panel of judges found on Thursday afternoon Abdullah guilty of “intentionally spreading information to incite hate” on social media and violating the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

Abdullah committed his crimes between April and August 2015 from his residence in Pekanbaru, the bench said.

One of his hate speech campaigns targeted President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo through an account held in the name of Harsono Abdullah.

Abdullah also used the name Muhammad Ali Firdaus to spread hate speech on Facebook as part of an anti-Chinese campaign.

“Therefore, the panel sentences the defendant to two years and eight months in prison,” said presiding judge Martin Ginting.

The sentence fell short of the four years prosecutors had sought.

Abdullah was arrested on Aug. 30 last year at his residence in Pekanbaru, a month after police arrested Jasriadi, the alleged leader of Saracen.