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 in Woolwich Crown Court.

Lawyers for the Solicitor General accused Robinson, 41, of “undermining” the rule of law.

Barristers for Robinson said it was his “principles that have brought him before the court”.

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 the 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 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, Yaxley-Lennon showed the film to thousands of his supporters in Trafalgar Square, saying he would not be silenced. The following day he left the country.

Aidan Eardley KC, for the solicitor general, told the court that Yaxley-Lennon had intended to repeat the false allegations, despite the injunction, and then take “evasive” measures.

“This is a high culpability case because of the high number of breaches,” said Mr Eardley.

“It is a continuing breach, the material is still out there and some of it is under the defendant’s control.”

Sasha Wass KC, for Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said he was a journalist who had been following his principles and was a passionate believer in free speech.

“This defendant has been neither sly nor dishonest nor seeking gain for himself,” she said.

She said that he was such a controversial figure he may be placed in solitary confinement by prison governors, as had occurred the last time he had been jailed, and there was medical evidence he had previously suffered trauma, panic attacks and nightmares.

Jailing Yaxley-Lennon for 18 months, Mr Justice Johnson said: “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.

“Even if they believe that an injunction is… contrary to their views they must comply with the injunction.

“They are not entitled to set themselves up as the judge in their own court. Otherwise the administration of justice and rule of law would break down.”

BBC News

The court judgements are below.

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yax court 2

LONDON (Reuters) -British anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, on Monday was jailed for 18 months after he admitted contempt of court by breaching an injunction made after he was successfully sued for libel.

Yaxley-Lennon was sued for libel at London’s High Court by Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi and in 2021 was ordered to pay damages.

He was also made subject to an injunction preventing him from repeating the libellous statements. Yaxley-Lennon appeared at London’s Woolwich Crown Court and admitted breaching the injunction.

Britain’s Solicitor General took legal action against Yaxley-Lennon over comments in online interviews and a documentary titled ‘Silenced’, which has been viewed millions of times and was played in London’s Trafalgar Square in July.

Aidan Eardley, a lawyer representing the Solicitor General, said Yaxley-Lennon had been found in contempt on three separate occasions and was jailed for it in 2019. He also has separate criminal convictions.

Yaxley-Lennon’s lawyer Sasha Wass said: “He acted in the way that he did, and he accepts his culpability, because he passionately believes in free speech, a free press and the overwhelming desire that he has to expose the truth.”

Wass also said that ‘Silenced’ had been “effectively commissioned” through U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars company.

Judge Jeremy Johnson sentenced Yaxley-Lennon to 18 months, less three days spent in custody after he was arrested on Friday.

The judge said that four months could be removed from Yaxley-Lennon’s 18-month sentence if he tried to “purge” his contempt, including by taking down copies of ‘Silenced’.

Yaxley-Lennon was accused by some media and politicians of inflaming tensions which led to days of rioting across Britain at the end of July in the wake of the murder of three young girls at a dance workshop in Southport.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-anti-islam-activist-tommy-robinson-jailed-for-breaching-injunction/ar-AA1t3ZNl