His detention was made public in a post on his verified Twitter/X account and follows a march led by Robinson in central London on Saturday that drew thousands of people.
A complaint was later filed over a film allegedly being shown to the crowd in breach of a High Court order, with police saying officers were carrying out further investigations.
Robinson also posted a one-hour-and-45-minute video on X on Saturday afternoon, in which he explained that he had previously avoided posting the video because he was “afraid.”
It is unclear whether Robinson’s arrest is linked to the film, which focuses on the case of Jamal Hijazi, who was a schoolboy when he was attacked at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.
EMERGENCY ADMINISTRATIVE POST – PLEASE SHARE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!!!!
We can confirm that Tommy Robinson was arrested by police under powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.
That’s right, you read that right, Tommy is being held by the police who are using anti-terrorist means… pic.twitter.com/i3nagtBbXY
– Tommy Robinson 🇫🇷 (@TRobinsonNewEra) July 28, 2024
A message posted on his Twitter/X account on Sunday read: “We can confirm that Tommy Robinson has been detained by police using powers under the Terrorism Act 2000.
“That’s right, you read that correctly, Tommy is being held by the police under anti-terrorism legislation.
“We will keep you updated as soon as possible.”
The Metropolitan Police said there was “no involvement from the Metropolitan Police” in the publication regarding Robinson’s arrest.
In response to a complaint about the film on Saturday night, the Met said: “We were not aware of what films would be shown during the event.
“Protest organizers are not required to share this information in advance. We have no power to force them to do so.
“Officers on duty at the event could not reasonably have been aware of the ongoing civil proceedings relating to a particular film, but now that we have been made aware of them, we are conducting further investigations to determine what action should be taken.”
Syrian refugee Hijazi successfully sued Robinson in 2021 after he made false claims, including that Hijazi had assaulted girls at his school.
The court also ordered an injunction preventing Robinson from repeating the allegations he made against the then-teenager.
In August 2022, Robinson was fined £900 for failing to appear at a High Court hearing to be questioned about his finances relating to pre-trial costs in the case of around £43,000.
In June of this year, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) filed paperwork to begin possible contempt of court proceedings against Robinson over allegations he violated the 2021 court order.
He is due to appear at the High Court in London for a remand hearing in the case on Monday.
Demonstration
After news of the arrest broke, protesters gathered outside Downing Street with men shouting “Free Tommy now” and “We want Tommy out, we want Tommy out”.
There appeared to be several teenagers shouting “Oh, Tommy Robinson” as more than 20 police officers surrounded a crowd of about 70 people.
Dozens of protesters gathered around her and loudly chanted “Tommy Robinson” at a young woman who said her film about a Syrian schoolboy was defamatory.
The woman appeared to be filming with a phone as she made the comments and was escorted away by police.
(Image: PA)
As she walked away, the crowd turned and pointed at her, repeatedly shouting “oh Tommy Robinson”, while one teenager apparently shouted “f*** Palestine”.
Meanwhile, two men were seen wearing “Make America great again” hats at the protest, which then moved from outside Downing Street to Scotland Yard at 5pm before returning to the original location at 6pm.
