UK court jails man for stirring ‘racial hatred’ amid anti-immigrant riots
Al Jazeera
Prime Minister Keir Starmer says country remains on ‘high alert’ following violent far-right protests.
A judge in Leeds has sentenced a man to months in jail after the defendant admitted to publishing Facebook posts that “intended to stir racial hatred” during the riots that have gripped the United Kingdom over the past week.
In a case believed to be the first addressing social media posts linked to the unrest across England, Jordan Parlour, 28, was sentenced on Friday for writing posts encouraging people to attack a hotel housing asylum seekers and refugees.
According to UK broadcaster Sky News, in a Facebook post in early August, Parlour wrote: “Every man and his dog should smash [the] f**k out of Britannia hotel” in Leeds.
On Saturday, Britannia’s hotel manager was forced to put the building into lockdown due to the disorder in the city, and at least one window was broken after stones were thrown at it.
