Judges ordered British far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson to pay 100,000 pounds ($138,000) to a Syrian schoolboy after ruling on Thursday that he had libelled the child.
Jamal Hijazi, 18, was attacked in the playground at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, northern England, in October 2018.
Shortly after the video of the incident went viral, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed in two Facebook videos that Hijazi was himself a perpetrator of violence who “attacks young English girls in his school”.
In the clips, viewed by nearly a million people, 38-year-old Robinson also claimed Hijazi “beat a girl black and blue” and “threatened to stab” another boy at his school. The allegations were rejected by the court on Thursday.
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 pounds ($137,000) in damages, as well as ordering Robinson to pay costs which the PA news agency understands to be more than 500,000 pounds ($689,000).
