KUALA LUMPUR: A farmer was jailed five years by the High Court here for supporting the Islamic State (IS) terror group by way of bai’ah or oath of allegiance on Telegram app.

Judicial Commissioner Ab Karim Ab Rahman sentenced Zairosfitri Jainuddin Azhar after he admitted to the charge on Tuesday.

JC Ab Karim ordered for Zairosfitri to serve his sentence from July 15, last year, the day he was nabbed.

Zairosfitri, 25, was accused of providing support to IS by way of bai’ah via the “Gagak Hitam” Telegram chat group.

The offence was committed at No. 11, Blok A, Perumahan Awam 2, Chenderiang, Batang Padang in Perak at 12.33am on March 29 last year.

In his judgment, JC Ab Karim said the accused certainly understood the content of the bai’ah, adding that the offence was serious.

In mitigation, Zairosfitri’s counsel Datuk Ahmad Zaharil Muhayar said that his client could easily have been influenced by elements on the Internet.

But Ahmad Zaharil said Zairosfitri’s involvement was minimal.

He said there was no serious offence committed by his client as he only listened out of curiosity to the group chat, adding that his client has repented and promised not to repeat the offence in future.

Based on the statement of facts, Zairosfitri joined the “Gagak Hitam” chat group, which had 66 members, on March 25 last year and used “zairos sijack” as his identity.

When the accused was detained, police discovered two handphones which were later sent to the Bukit Aman Forensics Unit.

It was established the accused had made 41 comments between March 25 and June 16 last year and most of the comments showed that he had knowledge about the chat group.-thestar