An arrest warrant has been issued for a former farmer who failed to appear at court for sentencing after posting an inflammatory tweet suggesting Scotland’s Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf sympathised with terrorists.

Stuart Smith, 63, was convicted at Glasgow Sheriff Court in November last year of sending the message which read: “Humza Yousaf, good Scots name. I am sure he is 90 per cent backing Muslim killers.

“Be having a whip round for terrorist families soon.”

The offending tweet was sent on November 14, 2015, the day after the Paris terror attacks, and appeared in the feed of Mr Yousaf, then minister for external affairs.

Glasgow Sheriff Court
Stuart Smith failed to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Sheriff Sean Murphy QC issued the warrant after Smith, from Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway, failed to appear at the same court on Monday morning for sentencing.

Last year, Sheriff Murphy found Smith guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm by posting an abusive comment to Twitter that contained grossly offensive and derogatory remarks regarding a religion.

The offence was aggravated by religious prejudice, the court found.

Finding him guilty last year, Mr Murphy said of the message: “It displays a bias against the Islamic faith and clearly was designed to produce such feelings in the minds of others by the public posting of the message.”

He said it would cause “fear and alarm” for members of Scottish society.