London
CNN
—
British far-right political activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee, according to court documents.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted on Monday to breaching UK court rules 10 times.
Robinson, the founder of the now-defunct anti-immigration English Defence League (EDL), was accused of repeating false allegations that caused him to lose a libel suit in 2021.
The initial libel case related to Robinson making false accusations against a Syrian schoolboy who was attacked in an incident shared widely on social media. In 2018, footage emerged showing the 15-year-old – a refugee from Syria – being taunted, grabbed by the throat and pushed to the ground, as other students at his school in Huddersfield, northern England, looked on.
At the time, Robinson made allegations against the teenager in a number of social media videos, which he then deleted, falsely claiming the teen attacked English girls. The far-right figurehead later admitted to posting a fake photograph purporting to show violence by a Muslim gang. Robinson had to pay £100,000 ($130,000) in damages and legal costs at the time and was ordered to not repeat the false claims, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, a judge at London’s Woolwich Crown Court said Robinson breached court rules by publishing a film, called “Silenced,” on social media in which he repeated the libelous allegations. He also played the film publicly in London’s Trafalgar Square at a rally of his supporters and repeated the allegations in published interviews, according to the judge.
“The breaches were not accidental or negligent or merely reckless,” Justice Johnson said during the sentencing hearing. “There was a degree of sophistication in the breaches in that they involved the planned release of material in a manner that was designed to seek to achieve maximum coverage.
“All his actions suggest that he regards himself as being above the law,” the judge added. “Nobody is above the law.”
Robinson was removed from Facebook and Instagram in 2019 for posting anti-Muslim content and engaging in activity offline supporting hate figures and groups, Facebook said in a statement at the time.
But his controversial 90-minute film “Silenced” remains pinned to Robinson’s X feed and has been viewed by millions of people, according to the site’s counter.
A lawyer for Robinson argued that “he acted the way that he did, and he accepts his culpability, because he passionately believes in free speech,” PA Media reported.
Aidan Eardley, representing the solicitor general, told the court that “this is not a case about Mr. Yaxley-Lennon’s political views… It is a case about the disobedience to a court order, and the undermining of the rule of law that goes with that.”
On Saturday, thousands of Robinson’s supporters gathered in central London for a far-right rally – an event he missed because he was already in police custody. The far-right campaigners were met by anti-racism counter-protesters, according to London’s Metropolitan Police.