A law student has been convicted for an online rant against England and Arsenal footballer Bukayo Saka, which included calling him a “monkey” and using the N-word.
Suhel Ali, who is doing a law degree at City University, posted an audio message on X (formerly Twitter) calling Saka a “fucking black piece of shit”.
The law student’s outburst occurred after Arsenal’s defeat to Nottingham Forest on 20 May 2023. Ali, an Arsenal fan, said Saka was the “shittest winger I’ve ever seen at my club” and called him a “n**ger” and a “fucking monkey,” according to a report in Legal Futures.
Police tracked down Ali via his IP address. When interviewed, Ali admitted uploading the voice-note and said that he had done it when he was frustrated during the football match, but denied there was racial animosity.
Ali pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court to sending an offensive message. It was reported that Ali, who is of Nigerian heritage like Saka, told the court that he had not intended the tweet “to be racist”, and he claimed that he used the word monkey to suggest that Saka is “dumb”.
Ali’s defence lawyer also argued that the N-word was used in an offensive context rather than a racial context.
It was a “spur of the moment post”, said the defence lawyer, which happened “almost immediately after the game”. He commented that the note was not sent directly to Saka’s account.
“He was just firing off some really stupid, offensive remarks about how a footballer played,” said the barrister, and described the student as an “intelligent, eloquent, pleasant young man of good character.”
However, the prosecution lawyer said Ali’s comments should be classed as a ‘category A’ offence due to the “racial hostility” in the tweets.
The judge, Briony Clarke, ruled that that “racial” words had been used against Saka, who had been subject to a “number of very unpleasant, vitriolic” comments online, in the past.
The judge convicted Ali saying he had committed “a deeply unpleasant offence”. The law student will be sentenced on 8th October.
Ali’s lawyer said the student would be ‘haunted’ by the conviction for potentially the rest of his life, as he had wanted to become a lawyer.
Roll on Friday. https://www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/law-student-convicted-racist-saka-rant
I’m no Arsenal fan but how could you not like Saka he’s was the only member of the England team over the summer that you’d want to hear what he had to say
