A British right-wing activist has been sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred for sharing stickers online that warn about the consequences of mass immigration.
Sam Melia, 34, was convicted at Leeds Crown Court on Jan. 24 for distributing printable stickers via a Telegram channel with the intent of stirring up racial hatred.
A regional organizer for the right-wing organization Patriotic Alternative, the young father set up a group called the Hundred-Handers on the encrypted messaging app. He amassed 3,500 subscribers to whom he offered ways to download the stickers.
According to the Guardian newspaper, the offending stickers were of a right-wing nature and in opposition to the government’s long-term commitment to mass immigration. They bore the slogans: “Reject white guilt,” “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066,” and “Diversity – designed to fail, built to replace.”
Following Melia’s arrest in 2021, a search of his home by authorities found far-right insignia including a poster of Adolf Hitler. The stickers for which he was accused of inciting racial hatred had no association with Nazi Germany and, viewed in isolation, contained messaging largely commonplace across wider Europe’s cultural debate surrounding mass migration.
For example, the concept of population replacement is an issue warned about by members of the French right including the National Rally and Reconquete, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) currently sitting second in national polling, and Geert Wilders who just won a national election in the Netherlands.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Melia’s case, however, suggested that the existence of Nazi insignia at his home was indicative of “Melia’s ideology and underpinned his desire to spread his racist views in a deliberate manner.”
At the time of his conviction, Nick Price, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “He was very deliberate in the manner he wanted to spread his messages of racial hatred, and online messages recovered made it clear that he knew these stickers were being displayed in public and causing damage to public property.
“It is illegal to publish such material intending to stir up racial hatred towards others, and the CPS will not hesitate to bring prosecutions against those who break the law in this way.”
It is understood that Melia’s wife, Laura, is currently 8 months pregnant, meaning he will now miss the birth of his second child.
