English Defence League founder Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for defamatory allegations against a Syrian refugee, according to AP News.
Yaxley-Lennon admitted at Woolwich Crown Court that he was in contempt of court for breaching a 2021 injunction by giving interviews broadcast on YouTube, in a podcast and in a documentary he presented during a rally in London’s Trafalgar Square in July.
Justice Jeremy Johnson said Robinson’s breach of the injunction was not “accidental, negligent or merely reckless” but a “planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of the court’s orders.”
Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick and choose which injunctions they obey and those they do not. It is in the interests of the whole community that injunctions are obeyed.
Robinson was ordered not to repeat false allegations that teenager Jamal Hijazi had bullied and threatened other students at the school. Hijazi successfully sued him for defamation and was awarded £100,000 ($130,000) in damages.
The defendant has breached the injunction 10 times since 2023, including airing a documentary entitled Silenced, which has been viewed more than 44 million times.
Robinson, 41, founder of the EDL party, is one of the most influential nation-centred figures in the UK. Thousands of people supported him on Saturday in central London at the Unite the Kingdom rally, which he had planned but was unable to attend because he was jailed.
Yaxley-Lennon was jailed Friday on a warrant issued after he failed to show up for a contempt hearing in July and fled the country. While he was out of the country, he was accused of using his social media presence to foment protests that escalated into a week of riots across England and Northern Ireland this summer.
Demonstrations turned violent after social media users misidentified the suspect in a knife attack that killed three young girls in the seaside town of Southport as an immigrant and a Muslim.
