The co-founder of the far-right English Defense League (EDL), whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, shared a video allegedly held by security at Cancun airport. In the video, which was posted on his Telegram account, the 39-year-old says he flew to Mexico with his three children for the Easter holidays, but was detained at the airport. The children have been left with Robinson’s boyfriend, he said, and their mother is now flying out to pick them up. “I have been arrested, I have been separated from my children and I am now being deported for national security reasons,” Robinson told the camera, as he shows what he says is a security cell. He was told the reason for his arrest was “confidential” and that he had come directly from Mexico City, in an interaction with what appeared to be a member of the airport staff. “I have never broken the law here. “All I do at home is talk about Islam,” Robinson said. “I never had a problem, I landed for something that is clearly a family vacation and I was arrested, detained and separated from my children.” In another clip, he complains that it is difficult for him to live in England because he cannot open a bank account or rent a house. Robinson has been convicted in the United Kingdom of fraud, stalking, assault, use of another passport, threatening misconduct and contempt of court. Last week, he failed to appear in the Supreme Court for questioning over his finances in connection with unpaid legal bills, after losing a defamation case filed against him by a Syrian teenager last year. The founder of EDL successfully sued Jamal Hitzazi, after the then 15-year-old attacked the Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018. Shortly after a video of the incident went viral, Robinson claimed in two Facebook videos that Hitzazi “was not innocent and violently attacked young English girls at his school”, a Supreme Court judge later found to be false. . Following a preliminary hearing in the slander case in November 2020, Robinson was ordered to pay more than 43 43,000 in legal costs. He filed for bankruptcy about four months later.
