Son of cops an IS sympathiser

- EPA

KUALA LUMPUR: Both his parents are police officers but he strayed far from the path and got involved in terrorism-related activities.

Yesterday, Ahmad Faris Zulkefli, 21, the son of a police sergeant, was sentenced to five years in jail by the High Court here after he admitted to encouraging terrorism and keeping terrorism-related items.

He was earlier charged with encouraging terrorism using the name “Pak Kodi” and “mujahidin333” on the social messaging app WeChat at a house in Jalan 5/56 AU3, Keramat, between June 9 and July 30, 2016.

He was also accused of having terrorism-related items - a black T-shirt with the Islamic State (IS) logo, two handphones and an iPad which contained 215 photos related to the IS.

The items were seized from him when he was arrested at the house on Aug 29 last year.

Lawyer Adi Zulkarnain Zulkafli told the court that his client was the youngest child from a low-income family.

“His father will be retiring this year. His mother was also a police officer but she died five years ago,” he said.

His lawyer said that Ahmad Faris had picked up vocational skills at a community college and worked as a technician servicing air-conditioning units.

For extra money, he had a side business selling coffee, said Adi Zulkarnain, adding 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,” he said, referring to former Kedah PAS Youth information chief Lotfi Ariffin who re­­portedly died in Syria in 2014.

This was Ahmad Faris’ first offence and the lawyer asked the court to be lenient in its sentencing.

DPP Munirah Shamsudin @ Baharum, however, urged the court to hand down a deterrent sentence.

“Such cases will later become judicial notice.

“The court must consider the trend in sentencing as this is a serious case,” she said.

Justice Azman Abdullah told Ahmad Faris there were other ways to find heaven.

“In Islam, you can enter heaven by giving water to a thirsty dog,” he said, referring to a tale from the Quran.

“You should not encourage terrorism. The ones on the losing end are you and your parents,” he said.

The judge then sentenced Ahmad Faris to five years in jail for encouraging terrorism and another two years for possessing IS-related items.

Both sentences were to run concurrently from the date of arrest.