Afghan migrant guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage in TikTok post

An Afghan small boat migrant has been found guilty of making a threat to kill Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in a TikTok post.

Fayaz Khan, 26, made the threat to kill the politician between October 12 and 15 last year in a video on the social media platform that Mr Farage said was “pretty chilling”.

Khan was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Friday afternoon by a majority of 10 jurors to two after the jury deliberated for 11 hours and 55 minutes.

Jurors had been told that Khan had a “very large presence online” with his videos on TikTok, under the username “madapasa”, amassing hundreds of thousands of views.

Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said Khan’s videos were focused in autumn last year on his attempts to come to the UK by small boat – with the defendant being an Afghan national who had lived in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019.

Jurors had been 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”.

Mr Ratliff 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 never my intention to kill him or anything – this is my character, this is how I act in my videos.”

The Afghan national added: “In every video I make those sounds, I say ‘pop, pop pop’.”

Khan was not called to give evidence on Wednesday by defence lawyer Charles Royle.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Mr Ratliff said the alleged threat to kill was “not some off-the-cuff comment” and the video was “sinister and menacing”.

He added that 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, Mr 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.

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.

Khan will be sentenced on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court for the threat to kill conviction and for entering the UK illegally.

Nicholas Coates, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Khan not only entered the UK illegally – but made sinister threats against a Member of Parliament in plain view of thousands of followers.

“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 – and we hope today’s conviction sends a clear message.”