Migrant guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage in TikTok video
An Afghan immigrant who came to the UK on small boats was found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage via TikTok.
Fayaz Khan, 26, came to the UK between October 12 and 15 last year and shared a video in which he claimed that he wanted to “marry” the politician’s sister and made gun gestures while saying “pop, pop, pop”.
The Reform UK leader said the post was “pretty chilling” during his hearing at Southwark Crown Court, adding “given his affinity for guns and his love of guns, I was really concerned.”
Nicholas Coates, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said he hoped the conviction would “send a clear message” and stressed that “elected politicians should be able to do their jobs without fear of harm or abuse, and we will ensure that those who seek to intimidate them face the full force of the law.”
“We had already accused Khan of coming to the UK illegally and were determined to bring him to justice for his threats against Nigel Farage,” he added.
Jurors were told Khan had a “huge presence online” with his videos on TikTok under the username “madapasa” amassing hundreds of thousands of views.
In the autumn of last year he filmed the defendant’s attempts to come to the UK on a “small boat”, where he had been living in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2019.
On October 12 last year, Mr Farage uploaded a video to YouTube titled “an illegal immigrant’s journey”, which highlighted Khan and referred to “young men of fighting age coming into our country, about whom we know very little”.
The prosecution said Khan responded with a video shown to the jury on October 14, in which Khan said: “British Nigel, don’t talk bad about me.
“You don’t know me. I came to England because I wanted to marry your sister. You don’t know me.”
“Don’t talk about me no more. Delete the video. I’m coming to England. I’m gonna pop, pop, pop.”
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff told jurors that Khan made “hand gun gestures” as he went “pop, pop, pop” and also head-butted the camera during the video and pointed to the AK47 tattoo on his face “to emphasize that he wasn’t joking.”
Mr Farage said: “He says he will come to England and shoot me. I really understood it very clearly, as did many others who saw it at the same time.”
The right-wing politician added: “A lot of ugly things get published in high-profile politics. A lot of bad things are said.”
“What you don’t see is a person directly saying on social media that they’re coming for you, and secondly, the method by which they’re 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, maybe you can draw a different inference from that.”
Asked by defense lawyer Charles Royle whether he was concerned that Khan “wanted to marry” his sister, Mr Farage said: “Are you really serious? That said a lot about the mentality of this person.”
“I was concerned about the presence of a man who openly treated women as objects and could pose a threat to them on our streets.”
Mr Farage added that the comment was “deeply misogynistic”.
Jurors were shown a screenshot of Khan’s subsequent TikTok post, titled “I say what I say”, over an image of a GB News report about the alleged threat to Mr Farage.
In an interview given to police on November 1 last year, Khan said through a translator that he had tried to come to the UK “10 times” and was in Dunkirk, France, when he recorded the video in which he allegedly threatened to kill Mr Farage.
Khan told police: “I’m coming here because I want to live here. I want a new life. I’m not coming here because I want to kill Nigel Farage.”
He also said he was smoking marijuana and “high” when he posted the video.
