Reuters —
British anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson announced on Saturday that he had been detained at Heathrow Airport and had his mobile phone confiscated, a week after posting extensively online about racism and anti-immigrant violence in Northern Ireland.
Mr Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, told X that he was detained for about three hours under the Counter-Terrorism and Border Protection Act on Saturday night.
“My mobile phone has been seized by the police. Please help me set up a legal fund for my defense,” he told X.
Last week, Mr Robinson repeatedly tweeted about the violence that gripped Belfast after footage of the brutal stabbing of a man who lost an eye in the attack went viral. A Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder. Police say the attack is not being treated as terrorism.
In the days that followed, rioters targeted homes and businesses owned by ethnic minorities and foreign residents in what the British minister responsible for the province called racist assaults.
Local politicians said far-right agitators online helped orchestrate and promote the violence.
A police spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officers stopped a man in his 40s at Heathrow Airport on Saturday as he returned to the UK from Russia via Turkey.
“The man was questioned by officers and his communication device was confiscated. He has since been released,” the spokesperson said.
