Tommy Robinson jailed for 'flagrant breach of the court’s orders' over allegations against Syrian refugee

Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting contempt of court by repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee, in breach of an injunction.

The political activist and English Defence League (EDL) founder, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted 10 breaches of a High Court order made in 2021 at the start of a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday.

Lawyers for the Solicitor General claimed the 41-year-old had been “thumbing his nose at the court” and “undermining” the rule of law, including by publishing a film called Silenced, which contains the libellous allegations, last year.

Barristers for Robinson, who wore a grey suit and white shirt, said it was his “principles that have brought him before the court”.

Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Johnson said the breaches of the injunction were not “accidental, negligent or merely reckless” and that the “custodial threshold is amply crossed”.

He said: “It was a planned, deliberate, direct, flagrant breach of the court’s orders.”

He continued: “Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick and choose which injunctions they obey and those they do not.”

He added: “It is in the interests of the whole community that injunctions are obeyed.”

Robinson, in a grey suit and white shirt, stood with his hands on the edge of the dock and looked up at dozens of supporters, shrugging his shoulders, as the judge handed down the sentence.

Dozens of his supporters packed the public gallery and stood outside the court on Monday.

Nick Lowles, CEO of campaign group Hope Not Hate, said: “TommyRobinsonknowingly and repeatedly broke a court injunction which forbid him from repeating libellous claims against a young Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi

“TommyRobinsonthought he was above the law but the team at Hope Not Hate painstakingly brought together an 86-page dossier of evidence of howRobinsontravelled the world profiting from Jamal’s pain.

“As recently as June, Tommy tried to deny any wrongdoing but when faced with our mountain of evidence, he doubled down playing the entire documentary containing the lies at his July 2024 demonstration in London.”

The group previously alleged that Robinson had ignored the injunction and repeated the allegations, providing a “dossier of evidence” to the Attorney General’s Office, with the Solicitor General then taking legal action.