A married father who threatened Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, with a deactivated AK-47 assault rifle in a video has been jailed for 27 months.
Habeeb Khan also threatened to “blow away” the English Defence League in the “inflammatory” video, filmed in his living room in Birmingham.
The video of the 49-year-old was widely shared on far-Right social media accounts, gaining 1.4 million views on a single extreme Right-wing account on X, formerly Twitter.
Birmingham crown court was told that Khan was arrested on Aug 7, two days after serious disorder erupted following the Southport knife attack.
His identity was confirmed after a T-shirt he was seen wearing in the video was found on a washing line, the court heard.
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The 11-second long video clip, played to the court, showed Khan fitting a magazine to the Kalashnikov and saying: “EDL, we’re coming to f—ing blow you away.”
Other parts of the viral video in which threats were made to Robinson, the 41-year-old former leader of the now defunct EDL, were not played at the sentencing hearing. In that section of the video, however, the masked man says: “Hey, Tommy Robinson. You want to play rough, hey? OK, come on! You want to play rough? I’ll blow you away!”
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is serving an 18-month jail sentence after admitting contempt of court in October.
Laurie Scott, prosecuting, told the Birmingham crown court that the “inflammatory” video was shared by numerous accounts on X. One account shared the clip alongside a message saying: “The most serious threat to protesters everywhere. This Muslim has an automatic assault rifle and says he’s coming for the EDL. All mosques need raiding now.”
Ms Scott said the decommissioned rifle, which was recovered by police on Aug 7, was incapable of firing live rounds and was “in effect ornamental”.
During his arrest, the court heard that Khan told officers “all I have done is make a little video” before “playing up” for a crowd that had gathered.
Khan, of Sparkbrook, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to making threats of death or serious harm contrary to the Online Safety Act. He also admitted threatening behaviour relating to homophobic and abusive comments made after he was taken to hospital by police on the day of his arrest.
The court heard that Khan has 11 previous convictions for 15 offences, including racially aggravated public order offences in 2009 and 2013.
He was also jailed for 12 months in 2019 after being convicted of possessing an imitation handgun with intent to cause fear of violence to a delivery driver outside a pizza shop.
Sunit Sandhu, the defence counsel, said Khan had health problems including bipolar disorder and cellulitis. He said a friend of Khan had uploaded the video online.
Mr Sandhu told the court: “He pleaded guilty at trial on the basis of being reckless and he himself not uploading the video. He realises the consequences of his actions and is genuinely remorseful.”
Passing sentence on Monday, Judge Melbourne Inman KC told Khan he had made the video at a time of “extremely heightened social tension”, adding: “Sadly, this is one of a number of cases that this court has had to deal with which arise out of civil unrest, which itself followed from the very tragic events in Southport on July 29.”
In October, a childminder married to a Conservative councillor was jailed after calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire on the day of the Southport killings. Lucy Connolly, 41, received a 31-month prison sentence after calling for “mass deportation now”.
