Far-right figure Tommy Robinson released early from UK prison

Tommy Robinson, a British far-right icon, has won his early release plea, and he has now been released from prison.

The anti-Islam campaigner left HMP Woodhill in Buckinghamshire on Tuesday after a high court cut his 18-month sentence by four months.

After admitting to having violated an injunction by making false claims about a Syrian schoolboy, the 42-year-old was imprisoned in October of that year for contempt of court.

Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian refugee who assaulted himself at his school in Huddersfield in 2018, had brought the libel case to the court, so Robinson lost.

Robinson then posted a number of defamatory remarks online after a video of the attack went viral. He was later ordered to pay £100, 000 ($124, 000) in damages and legal costs.

He posed for 20 minutes with his X account, had long hair, and a rosary, and appeared in a scraggly beard before being released.

In a video posted on his social media account, he criticized the British government and thanked X owner Elon Musk.

Robinson had requested release from prison in the middle of July, but he requested that his contempt order be removed.

He was alleged to have violated the injunction ten times. These included promoting a movie called Silenced, which featured the debunked allegations, and showcasing the same movie at a rally in central London last year.

Justice Johnson acknowledged Robinson’s lack of regrets at the time of sentencing in a ruling last week, but noted a “change in attitude” over the course of the past few weeks. The judge affirmed that “he has given an assurance that he will follow through on the injunction in the future] and that “he has no intention of violating it once more.”

The solicitor general brought the civil lawsuit because he claimed Robinson had purposefully authorized and distributed the movie and repeatedly reiterated the allegations in 2023 during multiple interviews.

Justice Johnson warned that any additional offenses could lead to a maximum sentence of two years in prison despite the sentence reduction.

Robinson, who is well-known for his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric and frequent legal fights linked to his political activism, is still a polarizing figure in the UK.

He denies that he was responsible for the country’s worst riots in 2024.