An Indian-origin British man has been sentenced to 20 months of captivity for posting Islamophobic rages on Twitter in the rouse of the terrorist attack earlier this year at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
Rhodenne Chand, 31, was found guilty on Monday stirring up racial hate online at Birmingham Crown Court.
According to West Midlands Police Chand’s condemning should be a warning to every social media user who posts agitating content that could lead to detainment in committing hate crimes.
“This case saw the sustained release of offensive, threatening material aimed at Muslim and Pakistani communities, it left people fearing some of the threats could be carried out by him or his Twitter followers,” said West Midlands Police Superintendent Mat Shaer.
“The law is careful to try and not penalize expression of opinion, even in strong and possibly offensive terms. But Chand’s tweets were a much baser expression of animosity towards a section of society and were totally unacceptable,” he said.
He said that his force takes hate crime very critically and anyone found to be committing hate crimes or stirring up hatred on the grounds of race, religion, sexuality, or disability could find themselves in law court facing a criminal condemnation.
“Court outcomes like this are important in order to reassure communities of our willingness to make progress in the way we tackle hate crime matches how proud we are to police such a diverse region,” Shaer added.
Some of the posts fortified ferocity against Muslims and for mosques to be attacked, and in a post Chand claimed he sought to “slit a Muslim’s throat”. A Twitter user reported the rant to police fearing Chand might carry through on his threats.
Earlier this year June 17, Chand was arrested admitting the hate messages and he felt sickened at himself for posting such content.
He told officers that in the outcome of the Manchester and London Borough Market terror attacks in May and June 2017 he was “venting” and had stopped using Social media since.
By Sowmya Sangam
