Twitter user who published image of severed head sentenced to five and a half years in prison

A Twitter user has been jailed for more than five years after using the platform to publish images encouraging the beheading of teachers for blasphemy against Islam.

Ajmal Shahpal, 41, from Nottingham, made the comments shortly after a teacher was beheaded in France for showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a lesson on free speech.

Shahpal tweeted a picture of Samuel Paty’s severed head with the comment: “Remove the head from the body, remove the head from the body.”

Over several weeks, he “specifically encouraged” the readers of his tweets to “behead those who insulted his religion, Islam”, Dan Pawson-Pounds, prosecuting, told Birmingham Crown Court.

He also sought to encourage attacks on the governments of countries he believed to be “acting against Islam”, the prosecutor added.

Read more: Sky News (UK)