Tommy Robinson Sentenced to Nine Months in Prison
British values and anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) has been sentenced to a total of nine months imprisonment for contempt of court over his livestreaming of a Muslim gang grooming trial in Leeds in May 2018.
Robinson was originally summarily sentenced to 13 months in prison following his arrest outside the Leeds trial. He had his conviction quashed by the British Court of Appeal in August 2018 and was released on bail pending a retrial.
The retrial concluded last week with the High Court of British finding him guilty of “serious interference with the administration of justice”. Sentencing was to take place today. Tommy’s supporters who were present for the trial were present today for the sentencing hearing.
It was live blogged by Rebel Media’s Ezra Levant who has been flying to and from his native Canada to the UK to cover all of the developments in Tommy’s case since his initial imprisonment last year.
His supporters reaction outside the court was livestreamed by RT UK. They were watched over by riot police though though his supporters venting of their anger has been peaceful.
Tommy has ended up being sentenced to six months imprisonment for livestreaming outside the Leeds Muslim grooming gang trial and a pre-existing three month suspended sentence was also activated for total of nine months imprisonment.
However the court took into consideration that he had already served 10 weeks in solitary confinement last year for the offence, and there were guidelines for a mandatory early release. The math is complicated but Tommy will spend no more than 19 weeks in prison but will be let out after half of that.
Because Tommy already served 10 weeks in solitary confinement, he will be given a certain amount of credit for “time served”. There are also guidelines for mandatory early release. In the end, the judge said he will be sent to prison for 19 weeks, but let out after half of that.
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
The sentence is not as harsh as some feared as the maximum sentence he was facing was two years imprisonment. Unless there is gross negligence on behalf of the UK correctional system Tommy will survive this term of imprisonment.
The court also ordered Tommy to pay for the costs of his trial, unusual for a criminal case. They have given his lawyer 28 days to lodge a submission about costs. No doubt Tommy’s TR News will have to solicit further financial contributions from his supporters to cover this extra legal expense.
They’re also ordering Tommy to pay costs, but they will give his lawyer 28 days to give them submissions about costs. They’re literally making him pay for his own conviction.
— Ezra Levant ???? (@ezralevant) July 11, 2019
Tommy on his way into court wore a shirt that said convicted of journalism. His supporters claim he is the first journalist imprisoned in the UK since the 1940s. Tommy and his supporters reject that he jeopardized the trial arguing that he did not report any information that could not already be legally reported.