FILE PHOTO: Anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, gestures before arriving at Folkestone Police Station in Folkestone, Britain, October 25, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Prominent British anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon has been charged with harassment causing fear of violence to two men around the time of the nationwide riots last year, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
"We have authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, 42, with harassment causing fear of violence against two men," a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said in a statement.
Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, is currently in prison over a separate contempt of court issue but is due to be released next week after winning a bid on Tuesday to trim the 18-month sentence.
The CPS said the alleged offences were committed between August 5 and 7 last year — when riots broke out at anti-immigration protests in towns and cities across Britain following the murder of three young girls in Southport, northwest England.
Yaxley-Lennon, who describes himself as a journalist who exposes state wrongdoing and counts U.S. billionaire Elon Musk among his supporters, was accused by some media and politicians of inflaming tensions at the time of the riots.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; editing by Michael Holden)
