UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson ordered to pay Syrian boy £100,000

British courts on Thursday ordered former far-right leader Tommy Robinson to pay a Syrian boy hundreds of thousands for libelling the child.


Robinson is the founder of the far-right English Defence League [Getty]

The New Arab & agencies
22 July, 2021

Judges ordered British far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson to pay £100,000 to a Syrian boy after ruling on Thursday that he had libelled the child.

Jamal Hijazi was attacked in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, northern England, in 2018.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed in two Facebook videos that Hijazi was himself a perpetrator of violence.

Robinson, who represented himself, maintained his comments were broadly true, saying he had "uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour" by Hijazi.

But High Court judge Matthew Nicklin said Robinson had failed to prove his allegations and ruled in Hijazi's favour, granting him £100,000 ($137,000, 116,000 euros) in damages.

Catrin Evans, Hijazi's lawyer, said the comments led to her client receiving death threats.

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Another member of Hijazi's legal team welcomed the decision as a vindication.

"It took great courage for our client, Jamal Hijazi, to pursue his libel action against such a prominent far-right and anti-Islam activist as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon," said Francesca Flood.

"We are delighted that Jamal has been entirely vindicated."

Nicklin said Hijazi suffered "particularly severe" consequences from the videos.

"The defendant's allegations against the claimant were very serious and were published widely," he said.

English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson loses libel case against Syrian schoolboy

Mr Robinson maintained he was an independent journalist during the trial

By Daniel Smith
 22 JUL 2021

Tommy Robinson

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Tommy Robinson has lost a libel case brought against him by a Syrian schoolboy who was filmed being attacked at school.

The English Defence League founder – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was sued by Jamal Hijazi, who was assaulted in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield in October 2018.

Shortly after the video of the incident went viral, Mr Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos that Jamal was “not innocent and he violently attacks young English girls in his school”.

In the clips viewed by nearly one million people, the 38-year-old also claimed Jamal “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school, allegations the teenager denies.

At a four-day trial in April, Jamal’s lawyers said that Mr Robinson’s comments had “a devastating effect” on the schoolboy and his family who had come to the UK as refugees from Homs, Syria.

Mr Robinson, who represented himself, argued his comments were substantially true, claiming to have “uncovered dozens of accounts of aggressive, abusive and deceitful behaviour” by Jamal.


However, in a judgment delivered on Thursday, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled in Jamal’s favour and granted him £100,000 in damages.