An Indonesian man is facing six years in jail after being charged with blasphemy for sharing a meme in which Islam’s Prophet Muhammad is apparently depicted as a paedophile.

The Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Police charged 39-year-old Joseph Suryadi, whose identity they revealed to the public, with blasphemy after they saw a viral screenshot of the meme he had allegedly posted in a WhatsApp group.

According to local media, the meme had implied that the Islamic prophet was a paedophile. The screenshot of the meme shows a likeness of Muhammad holding the likeness of a girl, possibly Aisha, by the hand, while sporting a bulge in his robe at crotch height.

According to traditional sources, Muhammad is said to have married Aisha when he was 53 and she was 6. He is believed to have first had sexual intercourse with her when she was nine years old.

The viral screenshot caused outrage in Indonesia, which is the country with the highest number of Muslims in the world, causing the hashtag #TangkapJosephSuryadi (Arrest Joseph Suryadi) to trend on social media.

According to local media, perhaps preempting his imminent arrest, Suryadi handed himself in to the police of his own accord, claiming he had mislaid his mobile phone, in an apparent attempt to claim he had not posted the meme himself.

The police investigated his claim and concluded he had lied. He reportedly eventually admitted to having shared the ‘offensive’ meme himself.

The police then charged him with blasphemy, which could earn him a maximum of six years in prison if he is found guilty.

Indonesia has charged its citizens with blasphemy in several high-profile cases, most notably that of the former governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who is a Christian of Chinese ancestry and who was sentenced to two years in jail in 2017.