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Tommy Robinson, founder of the far-right group English Defence League, has lost his appeal against an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
Three of England’s most senior judges, including the lady chief justice Baroness Sue Carr, dismissed a challenge Robinson brought against the sentence that he received last October.
Robinson challenged his sentence, which he received for repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee, on health grounds.
His lawyers told the Court of Appeal that he was suffering from conditions including complex post-traumatic stress disorder and his imprisonment was “making him ill”.
However, in a ruling on Wednesday, the judges found there was no basis to reduce the sanction and described the legal reasoning of the judge who originally sentenced him as “scrupulous and impeccable”.
The 42-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, released videos in 2018 in which he claimed that the refugee, Jamal Hijazi, was part of a gang and had taken part in a violent assault. The videos were viewed almost a million times and Hijazi became a target of abuse.
Hijazi successfully sued Robinson for libel, and the High Court issued an injunction in 2021 preventing him from repeating the allegations.
But Robinson went on to publish a video entitled “Silenced” that contained statements prohibited by the order.
The solicitor-general made two applications against him for contempt of court and Robinson admitted breaching the injunction on 10 occasions.
Sentencing Robinson last year, Mr Justice Johnson described the breaches as a “flagrant breach of the court’s order”.
At a Court of Appeal hearing last week, lawyers for Robinson highlighted that he had been segregated while in prison and said there were “serious consequences to the way in which he is being held”.
They pointed to a medical report from an expert psychologist and said Robinson’s imprisonment was making him “more ill than Mr Justice Johnson could have foreseen”.
However, in their ruling on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal judges said the conditions in which he was being held were not “materially harsher or more onerous than the judge foresaw”.
The judges also said that Robinson, who is due for release in July, could be released earlier if he were to demonstrate a commitment to comply with the injunction.
