LONDON — The founder of the English Defence League (EDL) Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after he admitted to breaching court orders on multiple occasions in front of London judges on Monday.
The 41-year-old was ordered by the UK’s High Court in 2021 to cease promoting libellous allegations about a teenage Syrian refugee after the teenager successfully sued the far-right activist for libel over a series of posts that falsely blamed the refugee of violently beating up a white female student.
However, Robinson continued to repeat the comments in a series of interviews published on YouTube and in a televised speech broadcast at a far-right rally in central London in July. The speech was later posted on his X account.
During the trial, the judge told the defendant that four months could be cut from his sentence if he “purged” his accounts of the false and libellous material. At this point Robinson reportedly looked to his supporters in the gallery and mouthed the word “no”.
Born in Luton, Robinson founded the nationalist and Islamophobic EDL in the town, which has a high Muslim population and has become one of the most influential far-right figures in Britain.
He has also become a fixture at European far-right events after becoming leader of Pegida UK, an offshoot of the far-right group established in Germany in 2015 in response to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to welcome over a million refugees, mainly from the Middle East.
The activist also set up the European Defence League, leading protests in Amsterdam outside the trial of hard-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders in 2016, who was in court for inciting “discrimination and hatred” against Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
Thousands of people rallied in support of the far-right activist and chanted his name on Saturday during a demonstration in central London. He was due to attend and address the “Unite the Kingdom” rally but was unable to because he had been jailed.
Robinson has had several run-ins with legal authorities and has been jailed multiple times in the past for assault, contempt of court, and mortgage fraud.
He was banned from Twitter in 2018 for incendiary comments, but he was allowed back after Elon Musk took over the social network, now called X.
Earlier this summer, the far-right figure was blamed for stirring up protests that turned into a week of riots across England and Northern Ireland.
The violent unrest erupted after social media users, including Robinson – who was in Cyprus on holiday at the time – falsely identified the suspect of a stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport as an immigrant and a Muslim. The British media accused him of “stoking race riots from his sunbed”.
During the trial, prosecutors accused him of putting “himself beyond the reach of authorities” after he left the UK a day before he was last due in court on the same charges in July. Handing down the sentence, the judge noted, “nobody is above the law”. — Euronews