LONDON, Aug 17, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - A man appeared in court Wednesday after

allegedly entering Windsor Castle grounds armed with a crossbow, declaring he
planned to kill Queen Elizabeth II.

The 20-year-old man, Jaswant Singh Chail, from Southampton in southern
England, appeared at a London court, having been charged with treason earlier
this month.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court via video-link from Broadmoor
high-security psychiatric hospital, confirming his name and location.

The prosecution told the court that Chail was held in the grounds of Windsor
Castle, where the monarch was staying, early on Christmas Day last year.

Dressed in a hood and mask and carrying a loaded crossbow with the safety
catch off, Chail came within line of sight of the Queen's apartments,
prosecutor Kathryn Selby said.

Chail allegedly told a protection officer: "I am here to kill the Queen."

The most serious charge he faces under the 180-year-old Treason Act is
"intent... to injure the person of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, or to
alarm her Majesty".

In the last such case, Briton Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years in
1981 after pleading guilty to firing blank shots at the monarch when she was
on parade.

Chail is also charged with making a threat to kill and possession of an
offensive weapon.

The unemployed former supermarket worker was not required to enter pleas.

- Not considered 'terrorism'-

Chail was investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism
Command, but his actions are not being treated as "terrorism", the prosecutor
said.

Prosecutors said he had previously attempted to join the Ministry of Defence
Police and the Grenadier Guards infantry regiment, to get closer to the royal
family.

He allegedly planned an attack as revenge for the treatment of Indians and
had sent out a video saying he would assassinate the Queen.

Chail will be held in custody until his next court appearance, at London's
Old Bailey, on September 14.

The incident happened as the Queen spent Christmas Day at the castle with her
eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla.

Although the intruder was intercepted quickly, it recalled an earlier, more
serious intrusion in 1982.

On that occasion, a man in his 30s entered the Queen's private chambers at
Buckingham Palace while she was in bed before police apprehended him.

In the summer of 2019, a man was arrested after climbing over the gates of
Buckingham Palace.

In 2018, a homeless man scaled its walls and slept in the grounds before
being caught.