Student claims he is being investigated for exposing campus hate

AN EDINBURGH University student who is under investigation for alleged “misconduct” towards minority students has insisted that part of the probe involves claims he is “lying about antisemitism” at the institution.

Robbie Travers, a third-year law student, is the subject of a preliminary investigation over claims he put “minority students at risk and in a state of panic and fear” after mocking Islamic State on social media.

But the 21 year-old, who is not Jewish, alleges that his constant defence of Israel and his “work in exposing malignant and repulsive Jew hate” is also the subject of the investigation by the university. Mr Travers said he became the subject of a complaint after he highlighted that an ethnic minority student group had referred to black men as “trash”.

Esme Allman, a second-year history student and former black and ethnic minority convenor of the university’s student union, complained to university officials that Mr Travers’s posts attacking Isis had put “put minority students at risk and in a state of panic and fear” and accused him of “blatant Islamophobia”.

Asked by the JC if their investigation into Mr Travers included claims he had “lied” about antisemitism, a university spokesperson said: “We can confirm that complaints alleging misconduct have been received against Mr Travers and these are being investigated. It is, however, untrue to suggest that Mr Travers is ‘under investigation’ for ‘mocking Isis’.”