Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio looks towards the sky as he leaves the DC Central Detention Facility where he had been held since September 2021, in Washington, U.S., January 14, 2022.
A leader of the right-wing Proud Boys group, Enrique Tarrio, was released from jail for burning a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic African American church in Washington in December 2020.
"I got five months in jail and three years in probation because of who I am, not because of the crime I command," said Tarrio in an exclusive interview with TRT World.
Tarrio was among a group of Proud Boys who stole the banner during a demonstration in Washington on December 12, 2020, then set it on fire, according to comments he made afterward.
He pleaded guilty in July, was sentenced in August and began serving his jail sentence in September.
Tarrio did not take part in the deadly January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol.
"I've never called for violence. I've never called for the storming of any building. I've never, even in a private level, said any of that," Tarrio said.
He said that he is not going to leave the organisation and the group should focus on "local elections."
Watch the full interview:
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