A Channel migrant who said he was coming to England to ‘pop, pop, pop’ Nigel Farage in a TikTok video has been found guilty of making threats to kill – as the Reform leader warned the 26-year-old would be free on the streets of Britain had it not been for his efforts to expose him.
Afghani national Fayaz Khan, who goes under the TikTok username Mada Pasa, has an AK47 tattooed on his cheek, made a threat to kill the politician in a ‘sinister and menacing’ video posted on the social media platform last year.
The migrant posted the clip in October in response to a YouTube video titled ‘the journey of an illegal migrant’ which was uploaded by Mr Farage days earlier and highlighted Khan’s attempts to come to the UK by small boat.
Jurors were shown the video in which Khan appears to say: ‘Englishman Nigel, don’t talk s*** 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.’
Following today’s conviction, Mr Farage intimated that had it not been for the Reform leader speaking out about Khan ‘he would be walking around in your neighbourhood, right now.’
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff told jurors that while Khan said ‘pop, pop, pop’ he made ‘gun gestures with his hand’, as well as headbutting the camera. He was also pointing to the AK47 tattoo on his face to ’emphasise he wasn’t joking’.
Mr Farage said Khan’s video was ‘pretty chilling’, adding: ‘Given his proximity to guns and love of guns, I was genuinely worried.’
But Khan, whose videos on TikTok have been viewed by millions, argued he had no intention of hurting or killing Mr Farage and often signed off much of his content in the same way.
Fayaz Khan, a small-boat migrant from Afghanistan, made a video responding to Nigel Farage
Khan has an AK47 tattooed on his cheek, seen in this video posted on his TikTok account
Mr Farage later told police he was ‘potentially in fear for my life’ due to the threat against him and his family, adding the reference to his sister by ‘misogynist’ Khan was euphemistic.
Khan was in France at this stage, having spent at least five years living in Sweden.
But he arrived in the UK via small boat at the end of October, when he was arrested.
He told police the ‘pop, pop, pop’ was not to do with guns, nor was he making a gun gesture in his videos.
And he said he did not know who Mr Farage was, Southwark Crown Court heard.
In his closing speech today, prosecutor Mr Ratliff said: ‘The prosecution say there is literally no sensible defence he could give to that video.
‘In interview he said those pop, pop, pop noises didn’t mean shooting bullets – that is nonsense, just as it is to suggest that this gesture (the crooked index finger) is anything other than a trigger.
‘If you think this video is sinister and menacing, that’s because it’s meant to be.’
He referenced Mr Farage’s evidence from the witness box on Tuesday in which the Reform UK leader said he was ‘genuinely’ concerned by Khan’s video.
Mr Ratliff said: ‘He [Mr Farage] told you in his walk of life, you get all sorts of nasty behaviour but this was different – having watched that video, you may understand why.’
He added that Khan was ‘a dangerous man with an interest in firearms’.
The prosecutor added: ‘If you’ve got an AK47 tattooed on your arm and your face, it’s because you love AK47s and you want the world to know that.’
Nigel Farage warned in a video message that the 26-year-old would be free on the streets of Britain had it not been for his efforts to expose him
Mr Farage was accompanied by security guards as he attended Southwark Crown Court
Khan did not give evidence in his defence.
But his counsel Charles Royle said Khan made the gun gesture and ‘pop’ noise in multiple videos unrelated to Mr Farage because it was his ‘signature’.
And he accused prosecutors of failing to provide sufficient evidence to support their case.
He told jurors: ‘The prosecution have effectively just accepted what Mr Farage has complained of.
‘Perhaps that’s understandable. We live in a frightening time with horrors on this side of the Atlantic and particularly the other.
‘But what the Crown have done is fallen into the trap of accepting a single version of events and using that to prove their case.’
The judge told jurors they could only convict Khan if they were sure the defendant made a threat to kill Mr Farage, that Khan intended that threat would reach the Reform UK leader, and that the defendant intended the politician to fear that the threat to kill would be carried out.
Khan was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Friday afternoon by a majority of ten jurors to two after the jury deliberated for 11 hours and 55 minutes.
He will be sentenced on Tuesday at the same court for the threat to kill conviction and for entering the UK illegally.
It has since emerged that Khan had been facing a knife crime charge in Sweden, Mr Farage revealed in a video message following the conviction.
The convicted illegal migrant additionally faces a further charge of child pornography and is due to appear in a Swedish court in December.
In the video, which Mr Farage posted to his 2.2million followers on X, he said: ‘So I believe I was right from the very beginning. I just hope and pray that he is deported to Sweden to fight this case.
‘My big fear was that at some point he would be free on the streets very soon.’
He added: ‘While there may be some genuine people who cross the channel, almost every day there might be people like Mada Pasa and will do this country and its people, particularly its girls and women, very, very great harm.’
Mr Farage ended his message by saying the issue has come to the forefront of parliamentary debate, but ‘I don’t believe this Government has the guts to do anything. ‘
Speaking today after the verdict, 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.’
