British National Party leader Nick Griffin has been found not guilty of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred in a speech he made in 2004.
Mr Griffin (47), of Llanerfyl, Powys, Wales, denied one count of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and an alternative count of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred.
The charges relate to a speech he made to supporters of the far right party in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in 2004, that was filmed by an undercover BBC reporter.
BNP leader Nick Griffin(left) and Mark Collett open champagne with their supporters after they were cleared of race hate charges at Leeds Crown Court today
BNP head of publicity Mark Collett (26) was also cleared of using words or behaviour intended to incite racial hatred at the same meeting.
A jury at Leeds Crown Court had heard that Mr Griffin told supporters Islam was a "wicked, vicious faith" that was turning the country into "a multiracial hell-hole". In the speech, Mr Griffin urged a crowd to vote for his far-right party to help stop what he described as a campaign by Muslims to take over the country.
Judge Norman Jones had stressed to the jury that it was not the BNP on trial, and that the alleged crime was racial, not religious, hatred. He told the jury stirring up racial hatred did not mean creating racial hatred but inflaming or exciting it.
Mr Griffin maintained throughout the trial that his comments were not racial but were attacking religion, and were designed to stir his audience to political activity.
The judge said it was up to the jury to decide whether Mr Griffin's comments were an attack on Islam or whether his words were carefully crafted using Islam as a cloak to stir up racism. He said Mr Griffin knew that his "less than sophisticated audience" would find the terms Asian and Muslim synonymous.
In February, Mr Griffin and Mr Collett were cleared of two other race hate charges arising out of the same BBC programme.
The two men emerged from court today to football-style chants of "freedom" from flag-waving supporters and noisy protests from a smaller group of opponents.
Surrounded by shaven-headed minders and dozens of police, Mmr Griffin rounded on the police and the BBC for their role in bringing him to court. "I will continue to speak the truth in plain, blunt terms," he said. "They cannot take our freedom."
Outside court, Mr Collett said the political establishment and the BBC were "cockroaches". Mr Griffin called for the resignation of the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, Colin Cramphorn.
The BNP has 54 local authority seats, many in poorer areas with large multi-ethnic populations.