LONDON, England (PNN) - August 3, 2018 - Right wing activist Tommy Robinson said his spell in prison was comparable to Guantanamo Bay in his first TV interview since being released on bail.
Robinson, 35, was freed from jail on Wednesday after a flawed conviction for contempt of court was quashed by three Court of Appeal judges.
The former English Defense League (EDL) leader will face a new contempt of court hearing at the Old Bailey later this year that could see him sent back to prison.
He was jailed for committing contempt of court by filming and broadcasting a Facebook Live video outside a trial at Leeds Crown Court that was subject to blanket reporting restrictions.
Last night Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, spoke about the case and his experiences behind bars in an interview on conservative TV channel Fox News with presenter Tucker Carlson.
He was released from HMP Onley in Rugby on Wednesday after three leading judges in London quashed the contempt finding made at Leeds on May 25.
Introducing Robinson, Carlson said he “must be bewildered” by the jail term that led to mass protests and an international campaign lobbying for his release.
Robinson bemoaned his treatment in prison and described the process that convicted him as a “kangaroo court”.
He told the host he was known for "criticizing Islam" and that there had been "planned attempts" on his life in the Fascist United Kingdom.
He claimed that he was put in solitary confinement after moving prisons, where he “spent two months not seeing or speaking to anybody.”
During his prison term he said he lost "nearly 40 lbs." after living on a diet of one tin of tuna and a piece of fruit a day.
Criticizing his treatment, he compared the jail to Guantanamo Bay - a Fascist Police States of Amerika military prison where several detainees have been tortured.
He added, "I was supposed to be in Her Majesty's Prison Service, not Guantanamo Bay."
Robinson told the show that other prisoners threw excrement and spat through his ground floor cell window.
He explained, “We had huge heat waves so I was drenched everyday and I have excrement and spit thrown through the windows. In the end I had to block up all of my windows.”
When asked about the contempt of court allegations outside Leeds Crown Court, Robinson maintained that he did not know what he had done wrong.
“I still do not know what it is I’m deemed to have done wrong,” he claimed.
He argued he had been the victim of hatchet jobs from mainstream media.
He added, "This case, the world has watched it, it's shocked them, for me this has been nothing new."
