British anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson said he was detained at Heathrow Airport on Saturday and his phone confiscated, a week after he posted widely online about racist and migrant violence in Northern Ireland.
Robinsonwhose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, said on social media that he was detained on Saturday evening for almost three hours under the Anti-Terrorism and Border Security Act.
“My phone has been taken by the police,” he wrote. “Please help me open my legal bag for protection.”
Robinson tweeted repeatedly last week about the violence that gripped Belfast after a video went viral showing a man being brutally stabbed, who lost an eye in the attack. .
A Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder. Police have said they are not treating the attack as terrorism.
In the days that followed, rioters targeted homes and businesses owned by ethnic minorities or foreign residents in what Hillary Benn, Northern Ireland’s foreign minister, called a racist raid.
