A British lawmaker has been found guilty of racial abuse and sentenced to a fine following an attack by Bahraini activists outside London’s government buildings last year.
Conservative MP Bob Stewart, 74, was found guilty of aggravated racially aggravated public order offenses after a one-day trial at a central London court and was fined £600 (743). He was ordered to pay costs and costs.
The court imposed a fine but warned it was not the equivalent of labeling Mr Stewart a racist.
“I accept that he is not a racist per se, but the same cannot be said of him,” Judge Paul Goldspring said. “Even good people can do bad things.”
Activist Saeed Ahmed Alwadai confronted the former army officer after an event related to the Bahraini embassy last December.
“Go away, I hate you. You make a fuss,” Mr. Stewart told Mr. Alwadai. “Go back to Bahrain.”
In footage played during the trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Mr Stewart told Mr Alwaday: “You’re extorting money from my country, get out.”
He also said, “Just shut up, you idiot.”
The activist told Goldspring that he exercised his right to protest by questioning Stewart.
The lawmaker accused him of receiving funding from Bahrain and said he did not intend to offend.
Stewart apologized for his comments last December, saying: guardianHe was the first to report on the incident and said 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.
At the hearing, Stewart insisted, “I’m not a racist.”
Updated: November 3, 2023, 8:18 p.m.