An Afghan migrant who came over to the UK via small boats has been found guilty of making threats to kill Nigel Farage on TikTok.
Fayaz Khan, 26, shared a video between 12 and 15 October last year in which he claimed he wanted to come to England to “marry” the politician’s sister, and made gun gestures while saying “pop, pop, pop”.
During his trial at Southwark Crown Court, the Reform UK leader said that the post had been “pretty chilling”, adding “given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried”.
Nicholas Coates of the Crown Prosecution Service said he hopes the conviction “sends a clear message” and stressed “elected politicians must be able to carry out their jobs free from the fear of harm or abuse and we will make sure that those who seek to intimidate them face the full force of the law”.
“Having already charged Khan with coming to the UK illegally, we were determined to bring him to justice for his threats against Nigel Farage,” he added.
Jurors were told that Khan had a “very large presence online” with his videos on TikTok, under the username “madapasa”, amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
In autumn last year, he filmed his attempts to come to the UK “by small boat” – with the defendant having lived in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019.
On 12 October 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 14 October, which was played to the jury, in which Khan appears to say: “Englishman Nigel, don’t talk s**t 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.”
Prosecutor Peter 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 pointing to an AK47 tattoo on his face to “emphasise he wasn’t joking”.
Mr Farage said: “He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me. I understood that very clearly indeed as did many people who saw it at the same time.”
The right-wing politician added: “In high-profile politics, a lot of nasty stuff gets posted. A lot of nasty stuff gets said.
“What you don’t see is an individual say on social media they are coming for you directly, and secondly, the means by which they are going to do it.”
Asked by the prosecution about the reference to his sister, Mr Farage said: “I’m not sure he wanted to marry my sister, you could perhaps draw a different inference from that.”
Asked by defence lawyer Charles Royle whether he was concerned that Khan “wanted to marry” his sister, Mr Farage said: “Really, are you being serious? It said so much about the mindset of this individual.
“I was concerned there was a man who clearly treats women as mere objects and could be a threat to them on our streets.”
Mr Farage added that the comment was “deeply misogynistic”.
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.
In a police interview on 1 November last year, Khan said through an interpreter that he had attempted to come to the UK “10 times” and was in Dunkirk, France, when he recorded the video in which he is alleged to have made a threat to kill Mr Farage.
Khan told police: “I come here because I want to live here. I want new life. I don’t come here because I want to kill Nigel Farage.”
He also said that he had been smoking cannabis and was “high” at the time of posting the video.
