A London woman was jailed on Friday for inciting race hate with antisemitic comments following the Grenfell Tower tragedy that claimed the lives of 72 people in 2017.
Tahra Ahmed, 51, was found guilty of two counts of stirring up racial hatred after expressing antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media in the aftermath of the deadly blaze.
A few days earlier, she had written that Jews were “behind ritual torture” and “the murder of children.”
On another occasion, she linked the Grenfell Tower incident to antisemitic conspiracy theories identified with the September 11 terror attacks in the US.
Having posted the statements on her Facebook page, Ahmed was reported to police by Jewish communal organizations, the Community Security Trust and the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
During her trial, prosecutor Hugh French said her posts had “crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal society,” noting that her Facebook account had revealed a history of antisemitism.
Ahmed claimed during her trial that her comments were political. French responded by noting that while her history on social media demonstrated “strongly held beliefs,” the posts written after the Grenfell Tower fire were “clear demonstrations of racial hatred.”
Ahmed was sentenced to 11 months in prison by the Central Criminal Court of England.
