Tommy Robinson jailed for contempt of court
He was jailed for republishing and distributing untrue claims about a Syrian refugee.
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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.
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