British Sikh jailed for nine years for threating to kill Queen Elizabeth

A man who claimed he wanted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth when he was stopped at Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow was jailed for nine years on Thursday after admitting to violating the Treason Act and uttering threats against the late monarch.

When Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, was apprehended on Christmas Day 2021 about 8 a.m. in the grounds of the castle to the west of London while wearing all-black attire, a hood, a metal mask, and gloves, he declared, “I am here to kill the queen.”

Elizabeth, who passed away in September of last year at the age of 96, was present at the incident, along with her son Charles, who is currently the king, and other members of her immediate family.

Chail made an appearance on Thursday at London’s Old Bailey, where judge Nicholas Hilliard ruled that he should first be held in the high security psychiatric hospital at Broadmoor before being transferred to a jail “when he has received the treatment he needs.”

Chail had “lost touch with reality such that he had become psychotic” by the time he entered Windsor Castle, according to the judge, but his guilt for his crimes was enormous.

“He had conceived of killing the queen early in 2021 when he was not psychotic. He took steps to try and get closer to his target and learn useful skills when, again, he was not psychotic,” the judge said.

Chail had pleaded guilty in February to the three charges of making threats to kill, possession of an offensive weapon, and an offence under the 1842 Treason Act, making him the first person to be convicted of treason in 40 years.

The court heard testimony from Chail, a Star Wars fanatic who harboured fantasies of becoming Darth Chailus, a Sith lord character from the film series.

Additionally, he sent thousands of sexually explicit messages to Sarai, an AI chatbot, asking her to assist him in deciding whether or not to carry out the attack.

A protection officer confronted Chail, who had spent months plotting, on the castle grounds in a place where the intruder would have access to the private rooms, Hilliard testified in court.

The “Supersonic X-bow” crossbow that was discovered was capable of discharging a bolt that could seriously harm or even kill a person.

“I am sorry for what I have done and what I will do. I am going to attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, queen of the royal family,” Chail, from Southampton in southern England, said in a video recorded before the incident, in which he was seen holding a crossbow and wearing a face covering.

“This is revenge for those who died in the 1919 massacre,” Chail said, referring to an incident when British colonial troops shot dead nearly 400 Sikhs in their holy city of Amritsar in northwestern India.

For what is also known as the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, British forces fired on unarmed citizens who had congregated to protest a colonial legislation, Indians have long requested a formal apology from Britain.

(With agency inputs)