Monsurat
A young black man, Ademola Adedeji’s jail term has sparked concerns of racism against black people in the United Kingdom’s Justice System.
Adedeji, 19, was one of 10 young men convicted over social media messages discussing revenge attacks, sent three days after the death of a friend. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison for sending text messages as part of a violent conspiracy.
Adedeji was accused of belonging to the M40 gang, which had planned a retaliation attack after one of its members, Alexander John Soyoye, was fatally stabbed on November 5, 2020. According to BBC, the nine-week trial, at Manchester Crown Court, involved 10 defendants in total, all of whom were young black men.
Seven of those convicted were 17-year-olds at the time of the offence. They lived in the Moston, Manchester. Adedeji reportedly had a spot reserved to study law at the prestigious Birmingham University and had previously written a book about empowering his local community
None of those named as targets in the Telegram chat were hurt in any way. Although, two of the defendants went on to violently attack two other boys using machetes and a car as a weapon. Six of the defendants were found guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Adedeji’s part was sending eleven messages to the Telegram chat, apparently in grieve for his friend, Soyoye’s death. He had passed on the postcode of one of those they believed to be Soyoye’s killers, which he later insisted was “a moment of madness” and he never meant for anyone to be hurt.
According to him, “emotions got the better of me… because someone I regarded as a younger brother had been ruthlessly taken away.” The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said they couldn’t appeal against their sentences.
The defendants all insisted the M40 was not a gang but a loose drill music collective. Soyoye had rapped under the M40 name before his death, as did the defendants. No evidence was presented in court that Adedeji was part of a gang, he simply listened to drill music.
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