Rapper convicted of posting ‘menacing’ video directed at Tommy Robinson

From the Guardian and Yahoo News

A rapper has been convicted of posting a “menacing” video on social media directed towards Tommy Robinson, in which he mentioned artillery and made a gun gesture while shouting “pow, pow, pow”.

Omar Abdirizak, a 31-year-old Birmingham-based rapper known as Twista Cheese, posted the minute-long TikTok video in August last year.

He pleaded not guilty to sending a message of a menacing character contrary to the Communications Act 2003 but was convicted after a two-hour trial at Birmingham magistrates court on Wednesday.

The prosecutor, Tim Talbot-Webb, said references to guns and artillery in the video meant it had crossed the line from freedom of speech into criminality.

In his evidence to the court, Abdirizak denied making direct threats to the jailed former English Defence League leader.

The drill rapper said he had made the video to “to put Tommy Robinson in his place” in response to issues connected to last summer’s riots. “I am saying, if you come – self-defence,” he told the court. “Even when I say ‘bam, bam, bam’, this is all entertainment.”

During the minute-long video, which was played to the court, Abdirizak can be seen wearing a patterned hoodie and grey jogging bottoms . . .  (and he) said he was a Somali pirate.

The singer denied making a gun gesture in the video and claimed references to artillery were encouragement for viewers to seek out a music video made in Mogadishu, Somalia, which featured rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

He says he has a message for Robinson, before adding he has “Muslims in every corner” and “look at the artillery we’ve got”.

Finding Abdirizak guilty, District Judge David Wain said the Twista Cheese music video made in Somalia, which was not played to the court, showed possession of firearms, albeit outside the UK.

The “natural meaning” of the video mentioning Robinson and featuring a “gesture as if holding a rifle” was a reference to such firearms, Mr Wain said. “Having heard the defendant’s evidence I am satisfied that this was the intended meaning of the communication rather than an attempt to promote his music,”

Abdirizak was granted conditional bail for sentencing on 12 February after the court expressed concern at “hidden disabilities” that needed to be explored, including mental health issues. But of course . . .

He will also be sentenced for possession of cannabis and a racially aggravated public order offence.