


A man found guilty of threatening to kill Nigel Farage has been jailed for five years.
Fayaz Khan, 26, was last week found guilty of making threats to kill the Reform UK leader in a TikTok post last year. Prosecutors said the threat made by Khan, a small boat migrant from Afghanistan, was "not some off-the-cuff comment" and the video was "sinister and menacing".
At his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today, prosecutors said it is believed Khan gave a false name to British authorities because of his criminal record in Sweden. Swedish authorities believe he is called Fayaz Husseini and is 31. The court was told he gave a different name because he has "enemies he did not want to find him".
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said records suggest Khan had been convicted of 17 offences on 12 separate occasions. The prosecution said there were multiple low level offences, including some involving drugs.
Mr Ratliff said in June 2019, Khan was convicted of using threatening behaviour towards a public servant, for which he was imprisoned.
Speaking outside the court after the sentence was handed down, Mr Farage said "I suppose we call that a win", before claiming that he could be back on the streets in 18 months. "Well, I suppose we call that a win," he told reporters outside Southwark Crown Court.
"It was about the maximum sentence that could possibly be given, five years, given the scale of the offence. And I thank Justice Steyn. I thank the judge for saying what she said.
"But the fact is that in 18 months time this violent criminal, somebody with 17 convictions in Sweden, in 18 months time he will be in this country, living in a house of multiple occupancy or a hotel, free to walk the streets whilst his asylum claim is judged."
After Khan was jailed, the Afghan migrant shouted from the dock that Mr Farage wanted to "use me because you want to be prime minister". As he was taken down to the cells, Khan shouted: "You want to be prime minister, I am not here because I want to kill you.
"I want to go back to Afghanistan, send me back to Afghanistan, my family is in Afghanistan. You want to use me because you want to be prime minister. Just because you want to do that you want to f*** my life, you want to put me in prison."
Sentencing judge Mrs Justice Steyn told Khan she agreed with Mr Farage that his threats to kill the politician were "pretty chilling". She told Khan: "Your video was not more abuse, it was a threat to kill with a firearm and it was, as Mr Farage put it, 'pretty chilling'."
The judge also said she was sure he gave UK authorities a false name and date of birth, but that "was not because you were hiding from so-called enemies". She told Khan it was because he has a "criminal record in Sweden" and an extant six-month prison sentence in the Scandinavian nation.
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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."
Last week, Mr Ratliff told the court 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."
Dfence lawyer Charles 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.
He added to jurors that the trial was "not about your views on illegal immigration, nor about your views on face tattoos, Brexit or Reform". Discussing Khan's decision not to give evidence, Mr Royle said: "You shouldn't hold any silence against him."
Jurors were 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".
The prosecution 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 just a video, it was never an intention to threaten him." The Afghan national added: "It was never my intention to kill him or anything - this is my character, this is how I act in my videos. In every video I make those sounds, I say 'pop, pop pop'."
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.