A YARDLEY man has been jailed after publishing written material to stir up racial hatred during last month’s unrest.
Ehsan Hussain, of Coventry Road, admitted the offence at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to two years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court.
The 25-year-old used a fake name belonging to an innocent member of the public to post numerous and vile messages on Telegram in a chat group containing over 12,000 members during the violent disorder across the UK in August.
Screenshots of the posts were captured which called for disorder in Alum Rock and Bordesley Green in Birmingham and incited racial violence.
West Midlands Police were made aware that a member of the public who is unrelated to Hussain was wrongly identified on social media as being the source of the messages.
That man has been spoken to by officers and is being supported.
Chief Superintendent Richard North, from Birmingham Police, said: “This has been an excellent but complex investigation.
“We would like to thank members of the public for alerting us to these posts which was crucial at a time when we were seeing lots of rumour, speculation and misinformation online; we know this can be extremely harmful to all of our communities.
“We do not tolerate violence in our towns and cities, or tolerate those who use social media to encourage such violence.”
