Tommy Robinson, Britain’s best-known far-right and anti-immigration agitator, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday for defying a court order by repeatedly making false claims about a teenage Syrian refugee who he successfully sued for defamation. received.
Mr Robinson appeared in court and admitted he was in contempt of court for breaching a 2021 High Court order prohibiting him from repeating defamation claims against Syrian refugees.
Robinson, the founder of the British Defense League, an Islamophobic nationalist group known for violent street protests in the late 2000s and 2010s, has until recently been on the fringes of the far right of British politics. He was a peripheral figure.
Mr Robinson, 41, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, returned to the UK last week after several months abroad. He was detained on separate charges before a court hearing in Woolwich, south-east London, on Friday after handing himself in to Kent police station.
The sentence came two days after thousands of his supporters marched and rallied in the streets of London, sparking massive counter-demonstrations. Both incidents were largely peaceful, with heavy police presence and only a few arrests.
