Lucy Connolly, the young mother released in August after spending over a year in prison for a post on X, has now received a warning that she coul risk further imprisonment.
After Connolly reposted a joke saying, “”Could Trump could come and take Starmer like they did in Venezuela,” she received a letter cautioning her that her post was “not of good behavior” and might violate her probation conditions. The joke—which made the rounds after the U.S. seizure of Nicolás Maduro—was prevalent in several iterations, pointing to other leaders (including President Emmanuel Macron of France) with whom constituents in different countries expressed dissatisfaction in this humoristic way.
“Apparently… somebody called probation and said they were very offended by this post and it’s inciting violence,” she told GB News.
Connolly has also been warned about comments about her daughter not being offered a place at an area school and about British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah.
U.S. Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers commented on the case on her official X account, saying Connolly had also been prevented from visiting the U.S. at the Trump government’s invitation.
In response to a comment on her post, Rogers added,
the terms of her probation include a nebulous “good behavior” clause that’s seemingly being invoked without any clear explanation to chill political dissent. Do you want to live in the kind of society where it’s “bad behavior” to criticize the government?
Connolly herself said she was sorry to disappoint those who wanted to see her back behind bars and that she generally has a good relationship with her probation officers.
In another online post, she said, “I’m none of the things I have been made out to be. I wrote an offensive tweet. I accept it was offensive and have apologised until I’m blue in the face. … But know this, I will never keep my mouth shut whilst the country is in the state it is in. I owe that to my children.”
