The activist and filmmaker will likely be placed in solitary confinement for his own safety
A British judge has sentenced right-wing activist Tommy Robinson to 18 months in prison for publishing a documentary containing libelous claims about a Syrian refugee. Robinson claims that he was jailed for “speaking the truth.”
Back in 2018, Robinson claimed on social media that a Syrian student who was attacked at a Yorkshire secondary school had a lengthy record of attacking female students. He was sued for libel by the student and ordered to pay £100,000 ($128,500) in damages in 2021, and not to repeat the allegations against the student.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, repeatedly breached this order, arguing that he had evidence that the Syrian teen had previously received a police caution for assault. In the most high-profile breach of the order, Robinson played a documentary film containing these claims at a demonstration in London in July.
At a hearing in Woolwich Crown Court in London on Monday, Justice Johnson told Robinson that “in a democratic society underpinned by the rule of law, court orders must be obeyed.”
“Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick or choose which laws or which injunctions they obey, or which they do not,” he stated. “Even if they believe that an injunction is… contrary to their views they must comply with the injunction.”
Robinson’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, argued that Robinson felt compelled to broadcast the documentary, as he had uncovered proof that school employees had been paid to stay silent on the Syrian’s history of violent behavior. He “acted in the way that he did, and he accepts his culpability because he passionately believes in free speech, a free press, and an overwhelming desire to expose the truth,” she said.
Pleading for leniency, she argued that Robinson would have to be placed in solitary confinement for his own safety if jailed. Robinson has served several stints in solitary confinement before, and suffered from “symptoms of trauma, nightmares, [and] depression” as a result, she told the court, quoting from a medical report.
Robinson was handed an 18-month sentence, with the possibility of release after nine months, Justice Johnson ruled. At no point during the hearing was the factual accuracy of the documentary disputed by Johnson or government prosecutors.
In a statement released after the verdict was handed down, Robinson described himself as a “political prisoner.”
“If I have to sit in jail for speaking the truth; Well I am just one of many people now that this government is imprisoning for things they say,” he said, referring to the dozens of Britons jailed for posting inflammatory statements on social media during nationwide riots following the murder of three children by a British teenager of Rwandan descent in July.
One of these prisoners, a 61-year-old man jailed for almost three years for shouting racist remarks at police officers, died in prison last week, reportedly by suicide.
Thousands of people attended a protest march in support of Robinson in London on Saturday. Two people were arrested and another two were arrested at a left-wing counter-protest held nearby, the city’s Metropolitan Police stated.
