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Leader of fake news website Saracen released on parole
Saracen is an online news website that was accused of spreading hate speech and hostility based on ethnicity, religion, race or societal group (SARA) via social media in 2017.
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Jasriadi, the leader of Saracen, a website accused of spreading hate speech via social media, has been released on parole. (Tempo/File)
T
he leader of alleged hate-speech propagator Saracen, Jasriadi, has been released on parole, a Law and Human Rights Ministry official has said.
Saracen is an online news website that was accused of spreading hate speech and hostility based on ethnicity, religion, race or societal group (SARA) via social media in 2017.
"Jasriadi was released on parole on May 8. His probation period will end on August 14, 2020," the ministry’s Correction Facilities Directorate General spokesman, Ade Kusmanto, said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.
He confirmed that the Pekanbaru Penitentiary in Riau had issued his letter of release after serving one year of his two-year sentence.
The Pekanbaru District Court in Riau initially sentenced Jasriadi to 10 months in prison for illegally hacking into social media accounts in April last year.
The panel of judges at the time argued that no evidence had been found pertaining to Jasriadi's involvement in the spread of hate speech, leading the sentence to be lighter than the two years’ imprisonment sought by the prosecutors.
Both Jasriadi and the prosecutors filed an appeal against the verdict.
The Pekanbaru High Court rejected Jasriadi's appeal and sentenced him to two years in prison in June 2018. (ars)
