A British lawmaker who once led UN peacekeeping forces in Bosnia was found guilty of racial abuse and sentenced to a fine on Friday.
Conservative MP Bob Stewart, 74, was found guilty of racially aggravated public order offenses after a one-day trial at a central London court and was fined £600. 74,000 yen) and was ordered to pay costs.
The former army officer had confronted human rights activist Saeed Ahmed al-Wadai after an event at the Bahrain embassy in December last year.
“Bob Stewart, how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?” shouted Alwadayi, who was protesting outside.
The lawmaker responded: “Get out, I hate you. I’m going to make a fuss. Go back to Bahrain.”
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In footage played during the trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Mr Stewart told Alwaday: “You are extorting money from my country, get out.”
He also said, “Just shut up, you idiot.”
The activist told Judge Paul Goldspring that by questioning Mr Stewart he was exercising his right to protest allegations of corruption and human rights abuses in the Middle Eastern country.
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He accused the lawmaker of receiving funding from Bahrain and acting as a “prominent defender” of the regime, and said he did not intend to insult him.
Protesters also claimed Mr Stewart chanted “Save the King of Bahrain” during his trip to the country.
Asked about the interaction, Ms Alwadai said: “I feel dehumanized, like someone who is not welcome in the UK.”
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Al-Wadei, director of the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said if he returned to Bahrain, “he would definitely be killed and tortured.”
Mr Stewart apologized for his comments last December and told the Guardian newspaper, which first reported the incident, that he had been “relentlessly ridiculed”.
He commanded UN peacekeeping forces in Bosnia during the Balkan conflict in the 1990s, retired in 1996, and became a member of parliament in 2010.
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At the hearing, Stewart insisted, “I’m not a racist.”
“I don’t accept that he’s a racist, but that’s not the case with him. Even good people can do bad things,” Goldspring said.
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