Conservative UK activist Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after admitting to contempt of court.

Robinson, 41, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted to breaching a 2021 High Court injunction barring him from making claims about a Syrian refugee student, Jamal Hijazi – whose lawyers successfully sued Robonson for libel and ordered to pay 100,000 pounds ($129,000) in damages.

On Friday, police confirmed that Robinson had been arrested on “one count of failing to provide the PIN to his mobile phone”

Under UK law, police have the right to stop anyone passing through a UK port “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

Robinson said the following in response:

Your honour, I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. My duty as a journalist is to uncover the truth and I have worked for years to shine light on challenges in society that no one else is willing to speak about.

Have you watched the documentary Your Honour?

If you have watched the film ‘Silenced’ Your Honour you will have seen that I didn’t make accusations and I didn’t make assumptions in the film. I simply repeated what I was told by the Head Teacher of the school and others and what was written in black and white in school documents. I let the witnesses give their testimonies and made it clear that Jamal, in his right to reply, denies all of their accusations against him. I explain Justice Nicklin’s verdict and I explain that I lost the case.

There was nothing else I could have included because Jamal didn’t bring any evidence to court and he didn’t bring anyone to court to speak for him apart from his father, Jihad. No teachers. No social workers. No friends.

It is for this,… REPORTING… for this that I am facing these charges, for this I am facing the prospect of time in a maximum security prison with the risks to my life that presents.

Justice Nicklin’s verdict in this case is extraordinary and while the case caused my divorce and bankruptcy, far more important is the impact his verdict has had on those courageous children who came to court to testify in my defence.

Justice Nicklin effectively discarded their testimonies. He said he didn’t know why they were lying but called them liars nevertheless.

Charlie, a grade A student, didn’t even like me or support me but was courageous enough to come to court to testify. She had a breakdown, she had to be sectioned. Justice Nicklin caused that.

Bailey Maclaren had tried to commit suicide. Thankfully he has started to rebuild his life. He has to overcome the lie that he is racist.

Many others have been affected.

The collateral damage of this scandalous verdict was too great for the public not to know the truth.  

Some people still believe the legacy media is there to report what is happening, the truth, rather than push strongly biased accounts driven by ideology or political agendas.

Well, in this case, the press only attended court on the day Jamal and his father gave their accounts. They then left court and didn’t bother to return to hear the testimony of the children who were witnesses for the defence.

The whole balanced picture could not be reported by the legacy media because they weren’t there; they weren’t interested in what the children testifying for the defence had to say.

And then Justice Nicklin tried to prevent the whole picture being given to the public by issuing his injunction, banning the film. Justice Nicklin has banned me from presenting the same evidence that was presented in court.

If it is such a clear-cut case, why is it necessary to hide the facts from the public. If they watched the testimonies of the witnesses, they would surely come to the same conclusion as Justice Nicklin.

What’s the agenda here?

Well the injunction was apparently to protect Jamal’s reputation. Yet it’s not the reputation of Jamal that has been damaged by this legal circus.  

I don’t wish any ill for Jamal. I personally think he was a victim of his own predatory lawyers and those who blasted this story around the world for their own purposes.

It’s very telling that Jamal hasn’t asked for me to be prosecuted in this case. Neither have his lawyers. The case has been brought by the Attorney General, by the Government.

In my view there are similarities with the Post OMice case. Powerful interests hiding the truth for their own purposes regardless of the terrible consequences for those innocent children I have mentioned, and others.

I could have shown the film ‘Silenced’ at any point in the preceding three years. I didn’t.

However, I did make the decision to play this film in Trafalgar Square on the 27th July this year. and I am grateful to @elonmusk
  and X for allowing the film to remain available; for standing for freedom of speech and a free press.

So if you’re asking me whether I plead guilty or not guilty, yes, I’m guilty of showing the film in Trafalgar Square on 27th July. And I am guilty of JOURNALISM.

And, although not for you Your Honour, nor for your court nor for the entire justice system, I do have contempt for Justice Nicklin’s ruling and the actions that attempt to hide the truth from the public.

Justice Nicklin fell out with his own father before the case, arguing about me. He should have recused himself before the case even began.

The world is watching. I stand for the truth, for freedom of speech and freedom of the press and if that puts me on the wrong side of Justice Nicklin’s injunction, then so be it.

If I have to sit in jail for speaking the truth; Well I am just one of many people now that this government is imprisoning for things they say; political prisoners.

This government is releasing violent offenders early to make space for people who tweet things they disagree with.

Peter Lynch is the first to have paid the ultimate price. A sixty-one year-old father, and grandfather, non-violent but imprisoned for his views and his speech.

If I have to sit in jail for refusing to be silenced for reporting information that was brought to me for journalism…

Then I am prepared for that.

Thank you

Your Honour.

Robinson was charged under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000. The incident follows a High Court Judge who issued a warrant for the activist’s arrest after he failed to appear for a contempt of court hearing due to take place at the end of July.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, handed himself on Friday afternoon in to Folkestone police station where he was charged with failing to provide the PIN to his mobile phone under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act. He was bailed to appear in court next month, Kent police said. He was then remanded in custody under a high court direction, the force said.

In July Robinson allegedly refused to give police access to his mobile phone when he was stopped under the Terrorism Act at the Channel tunnel. He had been bailed subject to returning to Folkestone police station.

He is also due to appear at Woolwich crown court on Monday on separate charges of contempt of court for repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee. Robinson’s supporters, who now control his X account, told his 1 million followers on the platform that he is being held on remand until Monday’s court appearance. -The Guardian

Tommy Robinson rally 26 october pic.twitter.com/7tgEYIyndZ

— Alternativ Media (@AlternativMedi3) October 26, 2024

🚨Breaking: British Journalist Tommy Robinson has been arrested for a contempt of court charge related to showing his documentary film, Silenced.

He is also wanted a for a terrorism charge related to his refusal to give authorities access to his phone after they used their… pic.twitter.com/34zVZ6vRYh

— Don Keith (@RealDonKeith) October 25, 2024

“The breaches were not accidental or negligent or merely reckless,” said Judge Jeremy Johnson of London’s Woolrich Crown Court. “Each breach of the injunction was a considered and planned and deliberate and direct and flagrant breach of the court’s order.”

Britain’s Solicitor General took legal action against Yaxley-Lennon over comments in online interviews and a documentary titled ‘Silenced’, which has been viewed millions of times and was played in London’s Trafalgar Square in July.

The Solicitor General’s lawyer Aidan Eardley said Yaxley-Lennon had been found in contempt on three separate occasions and was jailed for it in 2019. He also has separate criminal convictions.

Yaxley-Lennon was accused by some media and politicians of inflaming tensions which led to days of rioting across Britain in late July after the murder of three young girls at a dance workshop in Southport. He has accused the media of lying about him. -Reuters

According to Robinson’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, “He acted in the way that he did, and he accepts his culpability, because he passionately believes in free speech, a free press and the overwhelming desire that he has to expose the truth.”

In a display of unity and defiance, up to 200,000 Tommy Robinson supporters gathered peacefully in central London, despite his absence due to a sudden remand by police. The Unite the Kingdom rally was set to begin its march to Parliament Square after 1 p.m., but the massive… pic.twitter.com/N6PfDo4xsQ

— Stan Voice of Wales (@StanVoWales) October 26, 2024

The judge said that 4 months could be cut from Robinson’s sentence if he tried to “purge” his contempt, including by taking down copies of “Silenced.” As the judge said this, Robinson could be seen mouthing “nah” to the public gallery.