A jury has found Fayaz Khan guilty of making a threat to kill the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage.
The 26-year-old Afghan national was convicted of a charge related to a threat in a TikTok video from Dunkirk in October last year.
Mr Khan, known on TikTok as Mada Pasa, was travelling from Sweden to the UK when he posted the TikTok to his 340,000 followers.
Speaking in Southwark Crown Court, Nigel Farage described the threats made against him as “chilling” and that they made him “genuinely worried”.
In the video, the Afghan migrant who has an AK-47 tattoo on his face, said: “Englishman Nigel… don’t talk s**t about me”.
“I come to England because I want to marry your sister.
“I want to come to England to go pop pop pop”.
He also made “gun signals” with his hand and head-bashed the screen.
The Reform UK leader told the jury he understood the video to mean Mr Khan was “coming to England and he was going to shoot me”.
Mr Khan made 10 attempts to get to Britain and arrived on a small boat on October 31.
Fayaz Khan declined to give evidence in court, but the jury heard a reading from a transcript of a police interview with Mr Khan from November 1, 2024.
During the interview, he told police officers he “didn’t know who Nigel Farage was” and that he “was never going to hurt anyone”.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Speaking in Southwark Crown Court, Nigel Farage described the alleged threats made against him as ‘chilling’ and that they made him ‘genuinely worried’
|
PA
Jurors deliberated for 11 hours and 55 minutes before finding him guilty at Southwark Crown Court
|
PA
Mr Khan also told police how he does gun signals in every video he posts on TikTok and that it’s “part of his character”.
He told police officers he came to the UK to get his AK47 facial tattoo removed.
Jurors deliberated for 11 hours and 55 minutes before finding him guilty at Southwark Crown Court.
The verdict was reached after Mr Farage told the court that the video was “pretty chilling”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage returned to the campaign trail after appearing i court yesterday
|
PA
“Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried,” the Reform UK leader said.
“He says he’s coming to England and he’s going to shoot me.”
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff added that the threat to kill was “not some off-the-cuff comment” and the video was “sinister and menacing”.
However, defence lawyer Charles Royle described Khan as “remonstrating in his own idiosyncratic, moronic, comedic, eye-catching, attention-seeking way” rather than making a threat to kill in the TikTok video.