Leeds disorder: Two jailed after violence erupts following protest

Two men from Leeds were jailed after pleading guilty to affray following a protest.

Sameer Ali, 21, and Adnan Ghafoor, 31, were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court.

The offences took place following an anti-immigration protest and a counter- demonstration in Leeds city centre on August 3.

Ali and Ghafoor, who were not known to each other, had been walking in a group of people after leaving the Headrow following the demonstrations outside Leeds Art Gallery.

As they were walking, they encountered a group of four men on Great George Street, two of whom were draped in Union Jack flags while a third was wearing a Union Jack mask.

CCTV footage played to the court showed Ali punching two of them before grabbing another man's flag and attacking him. He then returned to the other men and continued to attack them.

Lawyers for the two men claimed they had been subjected to racist abuse in the moments before the violence.

Ali jailed for 20 months, while Ghafoor received a two-and-a-half-year sentence after the court heard he had breached a suspended sentence for driving offences.

Sentencing the pair, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl KC, said: "Given the nationwide context of the violence and in order to provide punishment and deterrence in accordance with the overarching principles of sentencing, severe sentences will follow for those found to have participated in incidents of violence."

The judge's sentencing remarks can be read in full at:https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-...

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