Amer Walid, a 24-year-old Kurdish man from Plymouth, UK, was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Monday 12 August.
Walid had attended a counter demonstration on 4 August after the far-right announced they intended to hold a gathering in the city.
The right-wing demonstration in Plymouth, in the southwest of England, came just one day after fascists stormed a hotel housing migrants in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, that was being used to house migrants. The mob started a fire at the hotel while people were still inside. Racist violence had broken out across many cities in the UK after the far-right falsely claimed that a man who killed three children in Southport on 29 July was a Muslim.
In the days that followed, hatred was whipped up by misinformation from right-wing politicians, including Nigel Farage of Reform, the UK’s new far-right parliamentary party. Shops owned by people of colour were attacked, as well as mosques.
Walid attended the demonstration on 5 August because, according to his barrister, he wanted to “defend his religion”. When he arrived at the anti-fascist counter demonstration, racists immediately threw a can of alcohol at him. Walid responded by throwing objects back at the fascists, who were hurling racist abuse.
In his trial, the judge said that Walid had not been “looking for trouble”, and that racist demonstrators had been chanting “deeply offensive racist chants”. But, the judge said, what Walid should have done “was rise above their simply obnoxious racism”.
Lucas Ormond Skeaping was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the Plymouth anti-racist demonstration.
In responding to the racist demonstrations, some anti-racists in the UK have received long prison terms, comparable to the sentences received by the far right. On Friday 9 August, two Muslim men from Leeds were sentenced to two years and two and a half years respectively. These two men had defended themselves and other members of a pro-Palestinian demonstration, after the protest was attacked by fascists chanting racist slogans and making threats, a local anti-racist group said.
