Two people in Britain given suspended sentences for antisemitic crimes
Courts in the United Kingdom handed suspended prison sentences to two people in cases involving antisemitic offences. As The Jerusalem Post reports, 45-year-old Michael Brown from Newhaven, East Sussex, was sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for one year. Syeda Khatun, 39, from the London borough of Hackney, received a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
Posts about attacks on synagogues
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Brown’s case on Tuesday. He had posted a message on Facebook suggesting that eggs, fruit and stink bombs should be thrown at synagogues and Jewish businesses. The post also asked for a recipe for a “fried synagogue.”
Judge Sam Goozee said while passing sentence that the post had targeted the Jewish community, its synagogues and businesses. According to him, a member of the Jewish community who read the message would inevitably have been alarmed by its content. The court considered racial hostility an aggravating factor.
Brown pleaded guilty to sending an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message via a public communications network. He was also ordered to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities and 80 hours of unpaid work.
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Attack near a Jewish school
Stratford Magistrates’ Court sentenced Khatun on Wednesday. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, on May 10 she shouted antisemitic abuse at Jewish children waiting outside a Jewish secondary school in Stamford Hill after returning from a school trip.
Case materials state that Khatun first abused a mother with a baby and then aggressively swung her arms at the pupils. When the father of one of the children objected to her behaviour, she struck him in the face and pulled his beard while continuing to shout antisemitic abuse.
On July 3, Khatun was found guilty of three counts of racially aggravated assault, one count of racially aggravated assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and racially aggravated abusive behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress. Following the prosecution’s arguments regarding her hostility toward the Jewish origin of the victims, the sentence was increased from eight to 12 months. The court also issued a restraining order against her.
