American Who Sowed Fear on Facebook about Corona Sentenced

A Texas resident who spread fear about the coronavirus on Facebook in April last year has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Christopher Charles Perez, 40, wrote in a message that he paid someone infected with the coronavirus to lick products at a supermarket in the American city of San Antonio.

The message Perez posted on Facebook was not true and was deleted after 16 minutes, but someone had taken a screenshot and called the police, The New York Times reports.

The FBI reached out to Perez, who said he shared the message “to scare people into public spaces.” He hoped that they “would not spread the virus further”.

In June, Perez was found guilty of spreading false information and deception regarding biological weapons. A judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison on Monday.