Fayaz Khan, 26, was last week found guilty in court after being accused of making threats to kill Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in a TikTok post last year
A man found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage has been jailed for five years.
Fayaz Khan, 26, was on Friday found guilty for making threats to kill the Reform UK leader in a TikTok post last year. Prosecutors said the threat made by Khan, a small boat migrant from Afghanistan, was “not some off-the-cuff comment” and the video was “sinister and menacing”.
At his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today, prosecutors said it is believed Khan gave a false name to British authorities because of his criminal record in Sweden, a court has heard. Swedish authorities believe he is called Fayaz Husseini and is 31. The court was told he gave a different name because he has “enemies he did not want to find him”.
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said records suggest Khan had been convicted of 17 offences on 12 separate occasions. The prosecution said there were multiple low level offences, including some involving drugs.
Mr Ratliff said in June 2019, Khan was convicted of using threatening behaviour towards a public servant, for which he was imprisoned.
Last week, Mr Ratliff told the court Khan was “a dangerous man with an interest in firearms”. The prosecutor added: “If you’ve got an AK-47 tattooed on your arm and your face, it’s because you love AK-47s and you want the world to know that.”
In his closing speech, defence lawyer Charles Royle said Khan was “remonstrating in his own idiosyncratic, moronic, comedic, eye-catching, attention-seeking way” rather than making a threat to kill in the TikTok video.
He added to jurors that the trial was “not about your views on illegal immigration, nor about your views on face tattoos, Brexit or Reform”. Discussing Khan’s decision not to give evidence, Mr Royle said: “You shouldn’t hold any silence against him.”
Jurors were told that on October 12 last year, Mr Farage uploaded a video to YouTube titled “the journey of an illegal migrant” which highlighted Khan and referenced “young males of fighting age coming into our country about whom we know very little”.
The prosecution said Khan responded with a video on October 14, which was played to the jury, in which Khan appears to say: “Englishman Nigel, don’t talk shit about me.
“You not know me. I come to England because I want to marry with your sister. You not know me. Don’t talk about me more. Delete the video. I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop, pop, pop.”
Mr Ratliff told jurors that while Khan said “pop, pop, pop” he made “gun gestures with his hand”, as well as headbutting the camera during the video, and was pointing to an AK-47 tattoo on his face to “emphasise he wasn’t joking”.
Mr Farage said on Tuesday that Khan’s video was “pretty chilling”, adding: “Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried.” The Reform UK leader added: “He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me.”
Jurors were shown a screenshot of a subsequent TikTok post by Khan with the caption “I mean what I say” written on an image of a GB News report about the alleged threat against Mr Farage.
The court was also shown other videos posted on social media by Khan in which he appeared to make “pop, pop, pop” noises and similar hand gestures to those in the TikTok video referencing Mr Farage.
In a police interview on November 1 last year, Khan said: “It was just a video, it was never an intention to threaten him.” The Afghan national added: “It was never my intention to kill him or anything – this is my character, this is how I act in my videos. In every video I make those sounds, I say ‘pop, pop pop’.”
Detective Constable Liam Taylor told the court that Khan had “live-streamed” his journey across the English Channel from France and was arrested on October 31 after arriving in the UK on a small boat.
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