Here is the powerful language in the court of appeal's summary of today's ruling in Tommy's favour. This is how that summary describes the injustices Tommy suffered in Leeds court on May 25:
"The court agrees that the judge should not have commenced the hearing of contempt proceedings that day." A clear rebuke to the hasty, drum-head proceedings, so obvious to all, except the the anti-Tommy bigots in the mainstream media. I'm glad the court stood up for due process!
"No particulars of the contempt were formulated or put to the appellant. There was a muddle over the nature of the contempt being considered." It wasn't even spelled out what Tommy had done wrong! How can one plead guilty (or be convicted) when the offences aren't even described!
And look at this: "In both the short explanation given by the judge of the general nature of the alleged contempt and the sentencing remarks, there was reference to matters that could not [have] been a breach". As in, the judge just made it up! This is scorching!
Remember, there is a detailed criminal procedure in the UK. It simply has to be followed. And it wasn't followed in Tommy's case. Listen to this: "The failure to follow Part 48 Crim PR was more than technical." It was a fatal flaw!
I've made this point a hundred times: if the judge didn't say what Tommy did wrong, how could a guilty plea have any meaning? "There was no clarity about what the appellant was admitting or on what basis he was being sentenced." Incredible. What a rebuke from the court of appeal!
There's a concept called "mitigation" -- it's basically, any facts that could be adduced to Tommy's benefit. And Tommy had no time to make them. Here's what the court said about that...
"Further difficulties arose from the limited opportunity that counsel had to investigate mitigation. There was little else which counsel could have done within the constraints under which he was working." As in: it was the judge's fault, not Tommy's public defender lawyer!
The court of appeal was tough on that point. "The level of detail which could be provided to the court was very limited and there was no opportunity to obtain character references." That's what happens in 15-minute trials. What a disgrace that Leeds Court is in today!
And then the judges took aim at the shocking 13-month sentence. "A sense of proportion must be retained. Where a custodial term of considerable length is being imposed, it should not usually occur so quickly after the conduct which is complained of." Shame on the trial judge!
And look at this. This is how an Oxford-trained judge says "it was a stitch-up": "A sentence of committal to immediate custody had been pronounced within five hours of the conduct taking place." I think the court of appeal was outright embarrassed by Tommy's treatment. #FreeTommy
Oh and there's more! Any one of these flaws would have been enough to throw out this injustice. But the court of appeal granted them all! Here's more...
"The order at Leeds Crown Court was also erroneously drawn up to suggest the appellant had been convicted of a criminal offence rather than having been committed for contempt of court." This is no minor mistake. It's shocking in its consequence....
"Errors like this have serious consequences upon the classification of prisoners, resulting in the deprivation of privileges and release on licence." As in: Tommy's brutal incarceration, in solitary confinement, in constant threat of violence -- it was all falsely done.
One more point: "In this case, it also resulted in the erroneous imposition of a victim surcharge." Is there a single thing that judge Geoffrey Marson got right? That would be a much shorter list than his appalling errors.
I cannot think of a single thing that Tommy's lawyers argued that was rejected. other than the long-shot appeal of the 2017 contempt conviction in Canterbury. Everything the Leeds judge did was rebuked today. It truly was a stitch-up. I'm thrilled the court of appeal said so.
Tommy's first book is called Enemy of the State. Some critics - and even some neutral observers - would say, "Tommy, you're exaggerating. Stop with the conspiracy theories. They're not out to get you." Today, no-one less than the Lord Chief Justice said, in fact, they were.
So we now know, irrefutably, from the Lord Chief Justice himself, that Tommy Robinson was improperly tried, improperly convicted, improperly sentenced and improperly treated in prison. Every single element of his treatment was illegal. Everything. He was a political prisoner.
I am so pleased with this result. I know that the family, in recent days, was nervous -- they thought perhaps another stitch-up was looming. The opposite. Not only is Tommy free, but it is the courts that now must answer for their misconduct. (But will they?)
I counted a dozen Media Party journalists in court today. Most loathe Tommy Robinson. Will any of them be able to overcome their personal grudges against him to ask questions about his mistreatment? Not because they love Tommy; but because they love the rule of law. I'm doubtful.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice". Tommy has had a long road; and even this battle is not yet done. But he has shown that the establishment was wrong, and he was right. He beat them, on their own turf.
A special thank-you to everyone who crowdfunded Tommy Robinson's legal defence, and to those of you who contributed to the separate crowdfund to cover my costs of coming to London (twice) to cover his legal appeal.