Man found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage
PA MediaA man who arrived in the UK on a small boat has been found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage in a video posted on TikTok.
Fayaz Khan, 26, posted a video last October in which he named the Reform England leader and made a gun sign with his hand.
The jury departed at 12.54pm (BST) on Wednesday before delivering its verdict at Southwark Crown Court on Friday.
Khan has had a “massive presence online” with his videos on TikTok under the username “madapasa”, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
PA MediaProsecutor Peter Ratliff said Khan’s videos showed his attempts to come to the UK from Afghanistan on a small boat.
On October 12, Mr Farage uploaded a video to YouTube titled “an illegal immigrant’s journey”, which highlighted Khan and referred to “the struggling young men coming to our country about whom we know very little”.
Mr Ratliff said Khan responded with a video shown to the jury on October 14 in which he addressed the Reform UK MP as “British Nigel”.
The video continued: “You don’t know me. I’m coming to England because I want to marry your sister. You don’t know me.”
“Don’t talk about me anymore. Delete the video.
“I’m coming to England. I’m going to explode, I’m going to explode, I’m going to explode.”
Mr Ratliff told the jury Khan made “gun gestures” with his hand and headbutted the camera while saying “bang, bang, bang”.
‘Pretty creepy’
Khan, an Afghan immigrant, also pointed to the AK-47 tattoo on his face to “emphasise that he was not joking”.
The prosecutor added: “If you have an AK-47 tattooed on your arm and face, it’s because you love AK-47s and you want the world to know it.”
Farage, MP for Clacton in Essex, gave evidence on Tuesday and said Khan’s video was “pretty chilling”, adding: “Given his affinity for guns and his love of guns, I was really concerned.”
The Reform UK leader added: “He says he’s going to come to England and shoot me.”
Jurors were shown other videos of Khan making “pop, pop, pop” sounds and similar hand movements similar to those in the TikTok video he posted on social media, referencing Mr Farage.
‘I say what I say’
Khan was not called to give evidence by defense lawyer Charles Royle on Wednesday, but told police in an interview last year: “It was never my intention to kill him or anything like that.
“This is my character, this is how I act in my videos.”
Khan said: “Every video I make these sounds I say ‘pop, pop pop’.”
Jurors were also shown a screenshot of Khan’s later TikTok post, captioned “What I say”, written over an image of the GB News report on the alleged threat to Mr Farage.
In his closing argument for the prosecution, Mr Ratliff said the alleged threat to kill was “not a spur of the moment comment” and that the video was “ominous and threatening”.
He added that Khan was “a dangerous man with an interest in firearms”.
In his closing defense speech, Mr Royle said Khan had “objected in a distinctive, silly, funny, eye-catching, eye-catching way” rather than threatening to kill.
This breaking news is being updated and more details will be released shortly. Please refresh the page for the full version.
You can get Breaking News from your smartphone or tablet. BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X To get the latest alerts.
