Tommy Robinson faces jail after new contempt of court claim

Tommy Robinson could face jail time after being issued with a new contempt of court claim against him after the airing of a film at a protest in central London.

The new contempt of court application has been lodged against the far-right activist over alleged breaches of a High Court order from 2021, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) has said.

The order came after he lost a legal battle against a Syrian refugee who had sued him for libel.

Law officers allege that the 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, breached an injunction barring him from repeating libellous allegations through six actions between June and July this year.

It is understood that the airing of a film called Silenced at a Trafalgar Square demonstration is one of such breaches.

The application is the second issued against Robinson in recent months.

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A hearing for both cases will be held on October 28, with the government website stating that those found to have committed contempt of court could be jailed for up to two years, fined, or both.

A court hearing was previously told that Robinson “knowingly” breached the order by having “published, caused, authorised or procured” Silenced in May last year, which contained the libellous allegations.

It is also alleged he repeated the claims banned by the injunction in three interviews between February and June 2023.

Robinson was ordered to pay £100,000 in damages when he was sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was assaulted in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield in October 2018.

Shortly after a video of the incident was shared widely on social media, Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

In the footage, which was viewed by nearly one million people, Robinson also said that Mr Hijazi “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school- allegations denied by the teenager.

During a four-day trial in April 2021, Mr Hijazi lawyers said Robinson’s comments had “a devastating effect” on the schoolboy and his family who had sought sanctuary in the UK as refugees from Homs, Syria.

The AGO said Robinson was served with the latest contempt application, made on behalf of Solicitor General Sarah Sackman, on his X account on Wednesday after the application was lodged on August 19.

Robinson was first served with contempt proceedings in June, with the Solicitor General telling a previous court hearing that he “knowingly” breached the order by having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film titled Silenced in May last year.

In the film, Robinson portrays himself as a free speech martyr and repeats the claims he'd made about Mr Hijazi.

It is also claimed Robinson repeated the allegations banned by the injunction in three interviews between February and June 2023.

Silenced was then shown again at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in July this year, which is understood to be part of the alleged breach of the order under the second contempt application.

The day after the protest, Robinson was arrested for the “frustration” of a port stop at the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General at the hearing in July, said that it was believed that following his release on unconditional bail, Robinson then left the country and that there “was nothing to prevent him from doing so”.

Mr Justice Johnson issued a warrant for Robinson’s arrest but ordered that it not be carried out “until early October” to allow Robinson time to indicate that he would attend the next hearing voluntarily or to apply to “set aside” the warrant.

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