English activist Tommy Robinson admitted to contempt of court on Monday for violating an injunction barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee.
The 41-year-old anti-grooming gang activist admitted at Woolwich Crown Court to breaching the injunction, which was put in place after he was successfully sued for libel by Syrian Jamal Hijazi in 2021, Sky News reports.
The case stemmed from a 2018 incident in which the Syrian refugee schoolboy was filmed being attacked by other pupils at the Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Following outrage over the incident, Robinson had claimed that Hijazi was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.
Hijazi was awarded £100,000 in compensation from Robinson after a court found the statements to be libellous and unfounded.
Robinson has continued to maintain that the claims were true, however, including in his documentary film Silenced as well as in public interviews.
For violating the injunction barring him from repeating the claims, Robinson faces up to two years in prison, fines, or potentially both.
During his activist career, Robinson has been jailed multiple times. Most recently, he was locked up in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison for violating reporting restrictions by filming grooming gang defendants as they entered court.
The accused men were later found guilty of committing a “campaign of rape and other sexual abuse” against young girls.
In addition to the current contempt of court case, Robinson also faces terrorism charges for “failing to provide the PIN to his mobile phone”.
Under legislation passed under the left-wing Tony Blair administration, authorities can demand that anyone passing through a British port hand over electronic devices “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”
His arrest and detention on Friday meant that Robinson could not attend a large rally in London on Saturday, in which his supporters decried the charges facing the activist, the state of free speech in modern Britain, and alleging that there is a “two-tier” form of justice in the country.
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