By Chris Menahan – Information Liberation
Right-wing British activist Sam Melia was sentenced to two years in prison in the UK on Friday for “intending to stir up racial hatred” by sharing various anti-immigration stickers stating “White Lives Matter” and “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066.”
Free speech concerns have been raised after a Leeds man was sentenced two years in prison after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred with a library of stickers.
Sam Melia, 34, was in charge of an online collection of downloadable stickers that contained anti-immigration messages for activists of the “Hundred Handers” group.
At Leeds Crown Court last month, Melia was also found guilty of encouraging racially aggravated criminal damage because his collection was involved in multiple “stickering” incidents.
During the trial, jurors were told that members of the group would access the downloadable stickers that they could download and stick around their communities.
The prosecution argued that the stickers were intended to stir up racial hatred.
The far-right organiser claimed that they were intended to “start a conversation” and that he was unaware that the stickering would count as criminal damage.
Melia was charged in December 2022 after evidence showed he established and maintained the database of around 200 stickers.
Counter Terrorism Policing North East said that many of the stickers were racist and antisemitic in nature.
They reportedly contained slogans such as “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066”, “Mass immigration is white genocide”, “intolerance is a virtue” and “they seek conquest not asylum.”
Melia said during the trial that it never even crossed his mind that he could be imprisoned for sharing stickers.
Melia’s wife Laura Towler reacted to the verdict on Telegram:
Melia and Towler spoke about the case outside the courtroom:
The sentence triggered outrage on social media:
Elon Musk posted his trademark “!!” to highlight the case:
The British rose up and voted for Brexit in 2016 to stop immigration and restore national sovereignty only for the “Conservatives” to give them record immigration, new hate speech laws and the jailing of British patriots for stickers.