Tag: English Defence League

  • UK: EDL leader jailed over passport

    UK: EDL leader jailed over passport

    Stephen Lennon
    Stephen Lennon

    The leader of the English Defence League has been jailed for 10 months after admitting using someone else’s passport to travel to the United States.

    Stephen Lennon, 30, pleaded guilty to possession of a false identity document with improper intention, contrary to the Identity Documents Act 2010, at Southwark Crown Court.

    Lennon used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic Flight from Heathrow to New York, but was caught out after his fingerprints were taken by customs officials.

    He left the airport and entered the US illegally but left the country the following day, using his own passport to return to the UK.

     

     

    Press Association

  • EDL Jewish division leader Roberta Moore quits

    EDL Jewish division leader Roberta Moore quits

    Roberta MooreBy Jennifer Lipman, June 29, 2011

    The hardline activist at the forefront of the “Jewish Division” of the extreme right-wing English Defence League has announced that she does not wish to be a part of it any longer because of Nazi elements within it.

    Roberta Moore, who has led the Jewish Division since it was launched more than a year ago, was accused earlier this month of being a divisive figure in the EDL.

    Ms Moore had attempted to co-ordinate her efforts with those of the far-right American Jewish Task Force, whose leader Victor Vancier has been imprisoned for terrorism offences. The move, in February, was heavily criticised by the EDL leadership.

    In a statement which she posted on Facebook, the Brazilian-born Ms Moore said she had been offered work on “an international level” elsewhere and so had decided to step down from the Jewish Division.

    Although she described the EDL as “doing a fantastic job” she said the party had been hijacked by elements who wanted to use it “for their own Nazi purposes”.

    Ms Moore said she still supported the EDL leaders and “all the genuine patriots out there who struggle to get their voices heard” but added that she no longer wished to be a part of it.

    “I sincerely hope that the leaders will get the strength to squash the Nazis within,” she said.

    “They will destroy this movement if allowed to remain.”

    Mark Gardner, from the Community Security Trust, said: “This latest development shows, yet again, why Jews should not be involved in such circles.”

    www.thejc.com, June 30 2011

  • Protesters and police clash in Nottingham

    Protesters and police clash in Nottingham

    Police have clashed with members of the English Defence League during a protest in Nottingham, with 11 people arrested.

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    Some 300 demonstrators from the EDL marched through the city centre shouting: “We want our country back.”

    Earlier there was a stand-off between the EDL and Unite Against Fascism, who held a counter protest in the city.

    Mounted police held back demonstrators with batons and punches were thrown at police. One female officer and a protester suffered minor injuries.

    Many of the EDL demonstrators had their faces covered with hooded tops and scarves and shouted anti-Islamic slogans.

    ‘Kicked police dog’

    Other protesters had Union Jacks and St George’s flags which they either waved or wrapped around their shoulders as a police officer shouted instructions at the crowd from a helicopter circling overhead.

    Some of the group waved placards with slogans such as “Protect Women, No To Sharia” and “No Surrender”.

    The EDL insists it is not a racist organisation and has no links to the BNP and is simply standing against the threat of Islamic extremism.

    A spokesman said they had planned the demonstration for Saturday as the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment was holding a homecoming parade in Nottingham following a recent tour of Afghanistan.

    The EDL and UAF exchanged hostile words in the city’s Old Market Square but large numbers of police officers managed to keep the rival demonstrators apart.

    Nottinghamshire Police said they had deployed more than 700 officers, including some drafted in from Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside.

    The force said a 29-year-old Nottinghamshire officer received an arm injury while policing the cordon and was taken to Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre for treatment but the injury was not thought to be serious.

    One of the 11 men arrested on suspicion of minor public order offences was also taken to hospital, with police saying it was believed he kicked a police dog, which then bit him.

    The BBC’s Ben Ando said the arrests came when a small number of EDL protesters clashed with police who were containing them near the city’s main railway station.

    ‘Anti-British’

    Thousands of Christmas shoppers gathered to watch 500 troops from the Mercian Regiment parade through the city in the morning.

    The homecoming parade followed a six-month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where the regiment lost five soldiers and dozens of its men were injured.

    A 43-year-old EDL member, a serving soldier who did not want to be named, said: “We came here to support our lads, and the UAF and other militants have turned up.

    “I think it’s disgusting. I look at their protest and there’s a Pakistani flag flying with a Muslim symbol. Their protest isn’t against the EDL, they’re protesting against the troops and it’s anti-British.

    “They haven’t got one Union Jack or St George’s Flag. I’m not a fascist, I’m not a Nazi but I am British.”

    Michael Vickery, from the UAF, said: “It’s not good enough not to have any kind of a response (to the EDL presence) because basically, if we don’t have a protest then it’s letting them come into town and say ‘this is our place for the day’, which it isn’t, it belongs to everyone in Nottingham.”

    After the rally missiles were thrown at a breakaway group of the EDL but no-one was hurt.

    The EDL marchers were led to the railway station by police and began boarding trains back to their homes at around 1630 GMT.

    Nottinghamshire’s Assistant Chief Constable Ian Ackerley said the force had faced a series of complex events but had achieved “a successful outcome to a very challenging day”.

    BBC