By: Ezra Levant

UPDATE, MAY 29, 2018:

This morning, our lawyer advised that the publication ban on Tommy Robinson's case was lifted! British media will now be permitted to report on this outrageous case, as foreign media have been doing.

We will still continue with the petition to the Attorney General asking for an investigation into the unacceptable circumstances of Tommy's case -- please sign that here.

And we will stay in touch with Tommy's family, and provide legal or financial assistance if they request it.

Ezra Levant

P.S. If you haven't yet done so, please read the story below, and watch the video. There are many other troubling aspects to Tommy's case, besides the publication ban.

Tommy Robinson is in prison.

It’s an emergency — we need your help.

But there’s a court-ordered publication ban over the circumstances of his imprisonment.

That gag order only applies to the UK, though — and I'm writing to you from North America, where there is still some freedom of the press left.

Please read this carefully, as it has information that the British media are prohibited from publishing.

On Friday, May 25, Tommy was reporting from outside the courthouse in Leeds, where an accused Muslim rape gang was on trial for repeatedly raping British girls as young as eleven years old. Tommy was broadcasting on Facebook, from his cell phone.

Tommy was very careful:

He did not set foot on the court precinct.

He did not call the men “rapists”, but rather called them “accused rapists”.

In no way did he interfere with the trial, which was on its final day.

When Tommy mentioned the names of the accused rapists, he was reading from a BBC website — so the names were clearly public information, on the state broadcaster.

Tommy did nothing wrong.

But suddenly, seven police officers swarmed Tommy and threw him in the back of a police van.

They said he was causing a disturbance, which is absurd — he was by himself on the street, with only a cameraman and a friend.

But it got worse. Much worse.

Within hours, Tommy was summoned before the judge. Tommy’s long-time lawyer was not informed of this. Rather, the court appointed a lawyer who didn’t know Tommy and wasn’t an expert in the specialized law of contempt of court.

In a matter of minutes, Tommy was sent to prison — with a 13-month sentence. He is now in HM Prison Hull, a brutal facility near Leeds.

A 13-month prison sentence for Tommy is tantamount to a death sentence — every Muslim criminal in prison will be trying to murder him. They’ve tried before.

The only alternative is for Tommy to request to be put into solitary confinement — but no-one can live that way, locked up without any human contact for 23 hours a day. Not for a year straight.

Tommy worked for us at The Rebel until this spring — we got him started in journalism, and we parted ways amicably when Tommy went independent.

And we still support him.

The day he was arrested, I spoke with Tommy’s wife and his lawyer, and offered to help in any way.

Last year, when Tommy worked for us, he was arrested outside of the court in Canterbury. Back then, we crowdfunded a top-notch legal team, and we were able to keep Tommy out of prison.

I offered to help again, and Tommy’s family and lawyer were grateful, but they have asked that we hold off doing anything (including crowdfunding) until they can have a proper conversation with Tommy.

Obviously, we will respect the wishes of Tommy’s family and lawyer.

But there is something else very important that we can do, on our own: we can go to court to have the gag order lifted from the media.

The basic facts here — what Tommy was doing and what he didn’t do; the shocking speed with which he was imprisoned; the fact that his own lawyer was not notified; the fact that Tommy has not had a proper chance to meet with his lawyer — are banned in the UK.

Not just the underlying facts of the rape gang trial — but the whole incident involving Tommy.

The judge who sent Tommy to jail, made it illegal to report that he sent Tommy to jail.

Why did the judge keep his justice secret?

Shouldn't the British people be able to learn the facts, and decide for themselves?

Why can people in Canada and the U.S. and Australia and Europe read all the facts — but not British citizens?

So we’re going to court, to apply to have this gag order lifted.

The Rebel is based in Canada, but we also have a registered UK corporation, with more than 150,000 UK customers, and a UK staff. So our UK company has legal standing to go to court on behalf of the British people.

We have hired an outstanding lawyer who has worked with Tommy before — Daniel Berke, the lawyer who took the case of Chelsey Wright, the girl from Sunderland who suffered so brutally at the hands of a predator.

I have spoken with Daniel, and he believes this is an important case, and he is already working on the emergency application.

It’s shocking that it falls to us — a small, independent, Internet-based news company — to fight for freedom of the press and open courts in the United Kingdom. Where is the BBC, or Sky, or any of the tabloids that so love to skewer Tommy when it suits them? Where are the organizations like Amnesty International or Reporters Without Borders, coming to the aid of a citizen journalist who was arrested and sentenced faster than in any dictatorship?

I guess it falls to us.

Because Tommy’s legal case isn’t just about him. It’s about all of us — and our freedom to have honest, public conversations about the threat of mass Muslim migration, gang rapes, and the Islamification of the west

If you want to help us crowdfund this court challenge to the gag order, please make a donation below. Note that this is separate from Tommy Robinson’s own case — this is simply to pay for challenging the publication ban in the UK.

It is hard to estimate how much it will cost, but my experience tells me it will be approximately £20,000.

Right now, Tommy’s family and lawyer are still huddling and coming up with a strategy. Let us give them their space. But in the meantime, let’s go to court to lift the publication ban on this horrific story.

I truly believe that if the British people learned what happened to Tommy Robinson on Friday, it would awaken within them the instincts of freedom and the rule of law that has been the British heritage since the Magna Carta.

If you can help crowdfund the legal costs of our emergency appeal, please donate below.

To contribute in British Pounds, please click here.

Tommy did his part. The biggest part — and he paid the biggest price.

I think this one lawsuit is our part.

We are also going to deliver a petition to the UK Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, demanding an investigation into the shocking treatment of Tommy by police and prosecutors. Please click here — we will deliver the petition next week.

If you prefer to mail a cheque, our addresses is below. Please put “Tommy Robinson” in the memo line.

The Rebel

PO Box 61056 Eglinton/Dufferin RO

Toronto, ON M6E 5B2