Hawzah News Agency - (North Carolina - US) - A North Carolina man was convicted Friday of a charge he anonymously threatened to lynch a Muslim-American man who ran for a state Senate seat in Virginia, federal prosecutors said.

Joseph Cecil Vandevere, 53, of Black Mountain, faces a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison following his conviction in federal court in Asheville, North Carolina, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray's office. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set.

Vandevere, whose trial started Thursday, was charged in June with interstate communication of a threat to injure a person in connection with a tweet directed at candidate Qasim Rashid. The tweet included a picture of a lynching and read, "VIEW YOUR DESTINY."

Rashid, an attorney who works on immigrant rights cases, posted a screenshot of the threatening tweet in March 2018 and reported it to the FBI.

Rashid, who testified at the trial on Friday, said there would have been "zero consequences" if he had reported such a threat in his native Pakistan. He said the jury's verdict is a powerful testament to the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of "equal protection and equal justice for all."

"They looked at the facts. They looked at the law. They applied it to the situation and came up with a just verdict," he said in a telephone interview.

Rashid said the verdict doesn't end his fight against hate and intolerance.

"I've had justice but there are many others who have not," he added.