Outcry at sentence as teen protester is jailed
Published: 2 April 2010
by TOM FOOT
A TEENAGER from Finsbury Park has begun a 12-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to violent disorder at an anti-war protest.
Yahia Tebani, a media student and former City and Islington College student, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday as around 50 activists staged a demonstration outside the over the “disproportionate” sentences handed down to dozens of young Muslim men and women who clashed with police outside the Israeli Embassy last year.
Yahia’s father Badi, a respected Arabic teacher who has lived in Islington for 16 years, visited his son in HM Reading Prison on Tuesday.
“He seems OK, I think,” said Mr Tebani. “He said he didn’t like being in prison. He said there were a lot of drugs, a lot of dealers and addicts. He is surrounded by them. What can I do?”
Yahia was arrested in April last year after 20 police burst into his father’s home at 4.30am and handcuffed him and his three brothers.
He had joined thousands of protesters on a march against Israeli bomb attacks on Gaza three months earlier when police and demonstrators clashed outside the Israeli embassy. Yahia, who had initially joined the protest to make a film for his university coursework, was caught on film throwing placard sticks and a chair at riot police.
Around 60 mainly young Muslim men and women have been sentenced based on video footage collected by police.
Yahia was charged with violent disorder and burglary. The burglary charge was later dropped.
Mr Tebani was in court on Friday to watch his son being sent to prison.
He said: “The judge said Yahia’s sentence was lightened because we had good character references and a letter from Jeremy Corbyn [MP]. I don’t think we will appeal.”
The heavy sentences – so far more than 50 young mainly Muslim men and women have received between one and two-and-half years – have been met by a massive backlash from human rights campaigners and top lawyers.
Jeremy Corbyn MP has described them as “totally disproportionate” and has called for an independent public inquiry into police conduct and the sentencing.
Newly released video footage, shown during a 15-minute BBC Newsnight special last Wednesday, revealed how riot police rushed at protesters, beating them with shields and batons.
More than 1,600 people have signed a petition condemning the sentencing and 44 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion set down by Mr Corbyn.
It says: “That this House acknowledges the right of the citizen to express lawful views about the unlawful acts of others at peaceful demonstrations; notes the disproportionate and unusually harsh sentences imposed on many young Muslims, most of exemplary character, who demonstrated against the Israeli attack on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009; and calls for an independent inquiry into the conduct of the police and public and the unwarranted collective conduct of the courts relevant to these demonstrations.”