Far-right activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted 10 breaches of a High Court order made in 2021, during a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court. Lawyers for the solicitor general accused the 41-year-old of “undermining” the rule of law. Passing sentence, Judge Mr Justice Johnson said the breaches of the injunction, which prevented Yaxley-Lenon from repeating the allegations, were not “accidental, negligent or merely reckless” and the custodial threshold was “amply crossed”. The hearing on Monday was the culmination of events that date back to October 2018. That month, a video went viral showing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school. Yaxley-Lennon then posted his own response to one million Facebook followers alleging that his investigation had established that Mr Hijazi was a violent thug, a claim that was untrue. The Yaxley-Lennon video spread widely and the Syrian teenager and his family received death threats. Three years later, Mr Hijazi won £100,000 in damages when the High Court ruled Yaxley-Lennon’s claims against him had amounted to defamation. The court imposed an injunction on Yaxley-Lennon, banning him from making the false claims again. In February 2023, Yaxley-Lennon, who founded the long-defunct English Defence League (EDL), began repeating the claims and went on to post online a film claiming he had been “silenced” by the state. That film may have been viewed at least 47 million times. Eventually, this July, the anti-Islam activist showed the film to thousands of his supporters in London’s Trafalgar Square, saying he would not be silenced. The following day he left the country.
via bbc: Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt of court
siehe auch: England: Rechtsextremist Tommy Robinson muss ins Gefängnis Vor Jahren verbreitete Tommy Robinson falsche Behauptungen über einen Schuljungen und wurde dafür verurteilt. Weil er sie wiederholte, muss er nun ins Gefängnis. Der rechtsextreme britische Aktivist Tommy Robinson ist zu 18 Monaten Haft verurteilt worden, nachdem er falsche Behauptungen über einen geflüchteten Jungen aus Syrien aufgestellt hatte. Das meldete das Nachrichtenportal Sky News am Montag. Er war kurz zuvor in Untersuchungshaft gekommen. Der 41-Jährige gab demnach vor dem Woolwich Crown Court zu, gegen eine einstweilige Verfügung verstoßen zu haben, die nach einer erfolgreichen Verleumdungsklage im Jahr 2021 erlassen worden war.