LONDON — Far-right British activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting to contempt of court.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on Monday admitted ten breaches of a 2021 High Court injunction which barred him from repeating libelous claims about a Syrian refugee schoolboy named Jamal Hijazi.
Lawyers for Hijazi, who successfully sued Yaxley-Lennon for libel, previously said Robinson’s false claims had had “a devastating effect” on him and his family and forced them to move home. Robinson was ordered to pay Hijazi £100,000 in damages and abide by an injunction preventing him from repeating the claims.
However, the Solicitor General for England and Wales issued two contempt claims against Robinson earlier this year, claiming that the activist — who screened a film containing the allegations in London’s Trafalgar Square — “knowingly” breached the order.
Robinson, 41, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court in east London Monday and answered “yes” when asked if he accepted committing the breaches.
The sentencing judge, Justice Johnson, said Robinson’s actions were a “blatant” breach of libel restrictions and warned “nobody is above the law,” according to LBC Radio.
Robinson is one of the most high-profile far-right figures in Britain. Thousands of his supporters gathered in central London Saturday.
He was formerly a member of the British National Party and co-founded the English Defense League. He unsuccessfully stood as a member of the European Parliament in 2019.
Robinson’s jailing over the contempt of court case comes days after he handed himself in at a police station. On Friday Robinson was separately charged with one count of refusing to give police access to his mobile phone under British terror law.
