The attack is believed to be the most significant in years against a cleric in Iran.

The hardline cleric and spiritual figurehead of the now outlawed Islamic Defenders Front was sentenced to four years in prison in June last year for violating Indonesia's quarantine law and spreading fake news during the pandemic.

Abdul Somad Batubara, who had travelled by ferry from the Indonesian port of Batam to Singapore, has a large online following in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country.

Rizieq Shihab was handed a four-year jail term for claiming in a viral video that he was healthy, despite knowing that test results showed he may have been infected with Covid-19.

Thousands of followers reacted to his video, most of them positively, although several hundred made fun of it – using the emoji in question.