A British judge had dropped the hammer on a far-left Black Lives Matter leader who was recently convicted on fraud charges.
23-year-old Xahra Saleem pleaded guilty to using fundraising donations to fund her lavish lifestyle, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Saleem, a former director of Changing Your Mindset, was one of the organizers of a BLM protest in Bristol, England, in June 2020.
Saleem appeared at Bristol Crown Court in a hijab and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years of prison, The Independent reported.
The protest was held to promote BLM following the death of George Floyd, according to the BBC.
Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose while in the custody of Minneapolis in May 2020.
His death triggered global riots after Democrats and their allies in the corporate media blamed the arresting police officers.
In the UK, Saleem led one of the BLM protests.
Saleem became well-known after her protest ended with the toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
The statue was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbor, according to the BBC.
Xahra Saleem helped organise the toppling of Edward Colston's statue in Bristol. She went on to defraud the public of £30,000 in donations for her BLM cause.
She spent the money on rent, ubers, hair & beauty appointments.
Bristol Crown Court jailed for two-and-a-half years. pic.twitter.com/5rJl6DPxSH
— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) October 31, 2023
In the run-up to the protest, Saleem created a fundraising page.
She claimed the funds would be used to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) to comply with regulations established during the COVID-19 pandemic, the BBC reported.
Saleem pleaded guilty to transferring more than £32,000 of the fundraising money to her personal bank account.
Between June 2020 and September 2021 she used the money to fund her expensive lifestyle, the BBC reported.
More than 2,500 payments were made from the account in a “constant leakage over a significant period of time,” Judge Michael Longman said.
Saleem spent the money on living expenses, a new iPhone, hair and beauty appointments, clothing, Amazon orders, takeaways, and taxis, according to BBC.
The judge said that raising the money was “a worthwhile cause” but that “you [Saleem] then used (it) not for their benefit but for your own, funding a lifestyle for yourself that you could not otherwise have afforded.”
“In the absence of a business account to pay the money into, the decision was made to pay it into your own account as an interim measure,” the judge said.
“The others involved in the project trusted you to hold the funds securely until a better arrangement could be made.
“There should have been no reason why the money could not be transferred into that account but problems became apparent.
“The money was not transferred and you made excuses for that failure.”
Saleem claimed she committed the fraud because she was not thinking clearly due to psychosis, according to the BBC.
After originally pleading not guilty, Saleem said she now feels remorse, the outlet reported.
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