Handcuffed Pakistani web designer is led into court in a hood after being accused of spreading lies about the Southport knifeman that triggered riots in Britain Farhan Asif was arrested for spreading lies about the Southport stabbing He was arrested and marched into court The web designer was charged with cyber terrorism By Elena Salvoni and Perkin Amalaraj Published: 12:12, 22 August 2024 | Updated: 12:20, 22 August 2024 e-mail A Pakistani web designer accused of spreading disinformation about the Southport knifeman which triggered the UK riots was hauled into court today in a hood and handcuffs. Farhan Asif, whose identity was concealed until after his court appearance, was pictured for the first time as he was led away from court in handcuffs after he was yesterday charged with cyber terrorism. He is reported to have worked for news aggregation website Channel3Now - which a Daily Mail investigation revealed started out as an obscure Russian YouTube channel ten years ago and spread the misinformation to millions online.
It was falsely claimed that the knifeman - whose identity could not be published at the time due to his age - was a migrant who arrived in the UK via boat and was on an MI6 watchlist. Police in Pakistan have charged Asif with cyber terrorism, in relation to the disinformation thought to have fuelled the widespread rioting. Farhan Asif, whose identity was concealed until after his court appearance, was pictured for the first time as he was led away from court.