Salah Salem Saleh Sulaiman, 46, is a citizen of Denmark. He posted on YouTube on April 21, after a Palestinian lecturer was shot and killed in Kuala Lumpur.
In the video, Sulaiman “claimed he was with the Palestinian victim during the shooting and made countless calls to the police who arrived the scene 50 minutes later,” Malaysia’s The Star reports.
But police say their records show that a patrol car was on the scene eight minutes after the shooting, according to Reuters. Sulaiman was charged with maliciously publishing fake news.
Sulaiman, who did not have a lawyer, pleaded guilty. He was fined just over $2,500, but because he could not pay the fine, he will serve a month in jail, Reuters says.
“[He] said he was a visitor, having only been here for 10 days and did not know that Malaysia had such a law,” the Star newspaper reports. “However, he admitted it was a mistake and apologised for any hurt that the video may have caused.”
Malaysia’s Anti-Fake News Act, which was passed earlier this month and swiftly went into effect, has been widely criticized for allowing the possibility of censorship.