The attack had upset the British. In October, MP David Amess died after being stabbed while on duty in the Essex region. This Monday, the 26-year-old man tried in this case was found guilty of murder and preparation of terrorist acts.
Arrested at the scene, Ali Harbi Ali, who was born and raised in London in a family of Somali origin, had pleaded not guilty. But he said at the hearing that he had targeted the elected official to prevent him from “doing harm” to Muslims by authorizing the bombing of Syria. He expressed no regrets.
It took just 18 minutes for the jurors to deliberate. The accused, tried since March 21, refused to stand up to hear the verdict, citing religious reasons. His sentence will be handed down at a hearing on Wednesday. Ali Harbi Ali had, according to British media, briefly completed a counter-radicalization program, without being considered at risk by the security services.
“Fanatical terrorist, radicalized”
Tried for preparing acts of terrorism between May 1, 2019 and September 28, 2021, he was described by the prosecutor as a “fanatic, radicalized Islamist terrorist”. He had carried out searches to target other MPs, visiting several times around the home of Michael Gove, currently Minister for Housing.
The attack occurred on October 15 when David Amess, 69 and father of five, received his constituents in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, 60 km east of London. The death of the MP, elected since 1983, rekindled the trauma of the assassination of Labor MP Jo Cox in June 2016. The 41-year-old MP had been killed by several bullets and stab wounds by a right-wing extremist, Thomas Mair, 53, a week before Britain’s referendum on EU membership.
These two tragedies have prompted calls to strengthen the security of elected officials and to calm an electric political debate in recent years, especially since the exchanges around Brexit.