An Afghan migrant who threatened to kill Nigel Farage on TikTok has been handed a lengthy jail sentence – after it was revealed he has a slew of previous convictions for violence.
Fayaz Khan, who launched an angry rant upon conviction, faces deportation after he was convicted over the ‘chilling’ social media post directed at the Reform UK leader a year ago.
It emerged today that the Channel migrant, who has an AK47 tattooed on his left cheek, has previous convictions for offences including knife possession, minor bodily harm, threatening behaviour and vandalism in Sweden, where he lived since 2015.
He had an extant six-month jail sentence hanging over him by the time he fled for the UK by small boat last October, and gave a fake name to UK authorities upon arrival.
Khan was handed a five-year sentence for the TikTok video by the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, at Southwark Crown Court today.
He was handed a further eight-month concurrent sentence after admitting one count of entering the country illegally, having previously made ten unsuccessful attempts to get to the UK, the court heard.
The judge said Khan’s threat was not ‘spoken in the heat of an argument’, and added: ‘Your video was not merely abuse, it was a threat to kill with a firearm. It was, as Mr Farage put it, pretty chilling.’
Mr Farage was sat in court throughout the hearing, accompanied by a team of security guards.
Channel migrant Fayaz Khan was convicted last week of making a threat to kill Nigel Farage during a TikTok video
Mr Farage arrived outside Southwark Crown Court to hear Khan be sentenced for making threats to kill him on TikTok
Citing the examples of slain MPs Jo Cox and Sir Davies Amess, she added: ‘Being a Member of Parliament is a vitally important public duty.
‘It is critical to a thriving democracy that the general public have access to Members of Public and politicians are not deterred from Parliament by threats.
‘Several MPs have been the subject of attacks and threats in recent years, and two Members of Parliament have been murdered.
‘When anyone makes a threat to kill a Member of Parliament, it is an exceptionally serious crime and will be treated as such.’
Khan initially showed no reaction as his sentence was confirmed, but then launched an extraordinary expletive-laden rant at the judge, the police and Mr Farage.
He said: ‘You (Mr Farage) use me so that you can be Prime Minister.
‘I am going to go back to Afghanistan, I want to see my family.
‘I want to go back to my country.
‘I am not here to kill you.
‘The police are lying. You want to f*** my life, you want to put me in prison.
‘Send me back to Afghanistan, I don’t want to stay here.’
The judge temporarily left court while Khan was taken down to the cells, accompanied by dock officers, and loud thudding noises as Khan continued to shout.
Khan has applied for asylum in the UK, although the length of his sentence means he faces deportation.
Wannabe influencer Khan took to social media after Mr Farage highlighted his plan to illegally enter the UK.
‘Gangster’ Khan could be seen to make a crook with his forefinger during the video and said he would ‘pop pop pop’ the man he referred to as ‘English man Nigel’ – claiming also he would ‘marry’ Mr Farage’s sister – something the judge today said was a ‘sexual threat’.
The high-profile politician said he was concerned Khan was going to try and shoot him and his family upon arrival in the UK.
Khan denied any malevolent intent, and said the ‘pop pop pop’ was his customary sign-off to his tens of thousands roof followers on TikTok, and not a threat to Mr Farage.
But he was convicted of one count of making threats to kill by jurors last Friday.
Prosecutor Peter Ratliff said Khan had 17 convictions back in Sweden, and said the migrant claimed he livestreamed his journey to the UK to highlight how difficult it was and the risk involved.
Prosecutors suggested it was more to do with encouraging others to make the same trip – something the defence suggested was not true.
Khan smirked from the dock as the court heard the conflicting evidence about his age, and nodded towards Mr Farage as his previous convictions were read disclosed. Mr Farage nodded back and smiled.
He applied for asylum in Sweden, but this was turned down – prompting him to head to the UK.
He was previously jailed for offences including using threatening behaviour towards a public servant, for carrying a knife in a public place and for using threatening behaviour.
Khan said his crooked finger gesture was his trademark sign-off for social media, and nothing sinister towards Mr Farage
Khan, who told British authorities he is 26 but is actually believed to be at least five years older, reportedly attacked a female train conductor in Sweden in 2019 when she tried to eject him because he did not have a ticket.
Khan was then sentenced to six months in jail for possession of a knife near Stockholm.
But he fled the country while waiting to appeal against the sentence and crossed into the UK on October 31.
By this time, members of Clacton MP Mr Farage’s team had already seen some of Khan’s posts online to do with his lifestyle.
This included posts suggesting he had access to firearms, making threatening gestures, dancing with young women, and charting his journey through Europe to get to England.
Mr Farage posted his own video highlighting Khan’s story and the ‘young males of fighting age coming into our country about whom we know very little’.
This prompted Khan to record his own response video two days later.
Addressing the camera, Khan said: ‘Englishman Nigel, don’t talk s*** about me.
‘You not know me. I come to England because I want to marry with your sister (sic).’
He signed off the video by saying: ‘I’m coming to England. I’m going to pop pop pop,’ and headbutted the camera.
Khan could be seen crooking his index finger as he made the ‘pop’ noise, something prosecutor Mr Ratliff said was intended to represent a gun and underline Khan’s sinister intentions.
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 by ‘misogynist’ Khan to ‘marry with’ his sister was euphemistic.
Khan arrived in the UK via small boat at the end of October where he was arrested.
The court heard Khan claimed he did not realise it was illegal to enter the UK by small boat, and used a false name when he arrived for processessing in Margate because ‘he had enemies he did not want to find him’.
Mr Ratliff said the reason was more likely because he did not want to alert authorities to his previous convictions.
He told police the ‘pop pop pop’ was not to do with guns, nor was he making a gun gesture in his videos.
He said he did not know who Mr Farage was, the trial at Southwark Crown Court heard.
In his closing speech, Mr Ratliff said: ‘The prosecution say there is literally no sensible defence he could give to that video.
‘If you think this video is sinister and menacing, that’s because it’s meant to be.’
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’.
The defence said Khan’s representation on social media was as ‘an entertainer’, trying ‘to play a part’ and earn a living off that.
Mr Royle said his client wanted to apologise to Mr Farage and his sister today, prompting the politician to nod.
The court heard Khan, who has a three-year-old son in Sweden, has applied for asylum in the UK because his father is an associate of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, and that the Taliban who now run the Middle East nation may come after him.
The judge said she was sure Khan gave the UK authorities a false name and false date of birth ‘not because you were hiding from so-called enemies – if that was the case, you wouldn’t have livestreamed your journey on social media.
‘It is because you have a criminal record in Sweden.’
Speaking at the conclusion of the case last week, Mr Farage said: ‘I already knew, though I couldn’t say this in court, that he was up for a knife crime charge in Sweden.
‘The fact that he had a Kalashnikov tattooed on his face, he behaved like a gangster, he was filmed surrounded by young girls wearing burqas, made me think this is the kind of person we don’t want in the United Kingdom.’
