Rizal Harahap, Pekanbaru, Riau – A panel of judges at Pekanbaru District Court has sentenced Jasriadi, the leader of hate-speech propagator network Saracen, to 10 months in prison for illegally hacking into social media accounts.

Presiding judge Asep Koswara said 32-year-old Jasriadi was found guilty of illegally accessing computers and electronic systems belonging to other people. Judges argued that Jasriadi had accessed several Facebook accounts, including one owned by Sri Rahayu Ningsih, an alleged coordinator of Saracen in West Java, with her permission.

"The defendant has been proven guilty of violating the 2016 Law on electronic information and transactions. We sentence the defendant to 10 months in prison," Asep said in a sentence hearing on Friday.

The sentence was lighter than the two years' imprisonment sought by the prosecutors. Asep and other judges Martin Ginting and Riska also declared in their verdict that no evidence had been found during the trial that Jasriadi was involved in the spread of hate speech containing sectarian sentiments such as had been committed by other Saracen members.

"No evidence was found that the defendant manipulated, created, altered or destroyed electronic information and documents with the intention to make those documents authentic. Thus, we free him from the primary indictment," Asep added.

Responding to the verdict, Jasriadi said he would file an appeal against the verdict.

"I didn't illegally access accounts, I only helped renew the accounts at the owners' request and with their permission. I also acquired the password from the owners," he said.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Erik Kusnandar said his team would also file an appeal against the verdict handed down by the judges. (dpk/rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/04/06/saracen-leader-gets-10-month-prison-sentence.html