A 24-year-old Dublin man who described himself as a jihadi has been jailed for six and a half years for setting fire to Conor McGregor’s pub and, four days later, stabbing a garda on one of the capital’s busiest streets. Abdullah Khan was sentenced at the non-jury Special Criminal Court on Monday, 2 November, after pleading guilty to eight offences, including two counts of engaging in terrorist activity.
Khan received seven and a half years, with the final year suspended, on the most serious count. All the sentences run at the same time and are backdated to 29 July 2025, the day of the second attack. A court order prevents publication of his Dublin address.
Petrol attack on Conor McGregor’s pub
The court heard that on 25 July 2025 Khan doused the front door of the Black Forge Inn on Drimnagh Road in Dublin 12 with petrol and set it alight with a match. The bar belongs to the former UFC champion.
In garda interviews, Khan said he wanted to warn McGregor and others he saw as holding right-wing views against insulting the Prophet Muhammad. He claimed the fighter had helped the far right grow in Ireland.
Garda stabbed from behind on Capel Street
On the evening of 29 July 2025, Khan approached two uniformed gardaí on Capel Street. He attacked Garda Gary Lynch from behind, stabbing him twice in the right arm, and then repeatedly tried to stab his colleague, Garda Patrick Nevin, despite being told to stop.
Garda Lynch needed surgery, is still undergoing therapy and does not yet know whether he can return to frontline duty. A member of the public helped bring the incident to an end by taking the knife from Khan’s hand.
Presiding judge Ms Justice Karen O’Connor, sitting with Judge Sarah Berkeley and Judge Fiona Lydon, said the offending was planned in advance and that the fact the victim was a garda was a significant aggravating factor. She praised both officers as “professional and courageous”, according to The Irish Times. The Daily Record reported that she said the CCTV footage shown in court made for “disturbing viewing”.
Radicalised online, court told
Detectives told an earlier hearing that Khan had been part of a wider circle of like-minded radicals. He told gardaí he began listening to recordings of the Islamic State figure Musab al-Zarqawi online at around 18, that his views hardened in his early twenties, and that he had pledged allegiance to the group.
A report by terrorism specialist Prof Paul Gill concluded Khan had acted in support of the Salafi jihadi cause. Khan refused to take part in a psychological or psychiatric assessment, so the court had no risk assessment before it. The court was also told his family had tried to get him help for mental health issues, which he rejected.
Strict conditions after release
On release, Khan will be supervised by the Probation Service for four years. Among the conditions, he must live at an agreed address, have no contact with anyone involved in extremism, carry no weapons or fire accelerants, and seek approval before attending any rally or gathering other than worship. The judge warned that any breach would send him back to prison.
Det Chief Supt Brian Woods said afterwards that gardaí remain highly alert to the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, and paid tribute to both officers. The sentence brings to a close one of the most high-profile terrorism cases heard in the State in recent years, more than a year after the attack on Conor McGregor’s pub.
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