HE was the son of a police sergeant but he promoted Islamic State (IS) material through the “WeChat” online chat application and even had a t-shirt with the terrorist group logo.

For that, High Court judge Azman Abdullah yesterday sentenced Ahmad Faris Zulkefli to five years in jail for promoting terrorist activities.

The Star daily said Ahmad Faris was found guilty of promoting terrorist activities through ‘WeChat’ application between June 9 and July 30, 2016.

He also kept terrorism-related items – a black T-shirt with the IS logo, two handphones and an iPad which contained 215 IS-related photos.

The items were seized from the 21-year-old when he was arrested at a house in Keramat, Selangor on August 29, 2016.

His lawyer Adi Zulkarnain Zulkafli told the court that the youth had learned about IS from watching television.

“It intrigued him to learn more about them and he became friends with Ustaz Lotfi,” Adi said, referring to former PAS Youth information chief Lotfi Ariffin, who reportedly died in Syria as an IS fighter in 2014.

Ahmad Faris, who is the youngest child from a low-income family, worked as a technician servicing air-conditioning units and had a side business selling coffee.

“His father will be retiring this year. His mother was also a police officer but she died five years ago,” he said, adding that this was Ahmad Faris’s first offence. – May 12, 2017.