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.

Some 3,000 police officers were deployed to guard the courthouse in East Jakarta ahead of the verdict.

Rizieq Shihab was welcomed by tens of thousands of followers at Jakarta airport on his return from exile last month, in violation of a Covid-19 ban on gatherings.