Islamic State fanatic found guilty of killing UK lawmaker David Amess last year

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, has said the politician deserved to die for voting in favor of airstrikes in Syria; jury deliberated for just 18 minutes

A jury in London on Monday found an Islamic State fanatic guilty of stabbing lawmaker David Amess to death and plotting to attack other lawmakers.

The jury deliberated for just 18 minutes to find Ali Harbi Ali guilty of murder and preparing terrorist acts. The 26-year-old carried out the attack at the veteran lawmaker’s office on October 15 last year.

He had defended his actions by saying Amess deserved to die as a result of voting for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.

“It cannot have been easy to listen to the evidence you have listened to,” judge Nigel Sweeney told jurors, saying he would sentence Ali, 26, on Wednesday.

The Islamic State follower had told the trial that he had no regrets about murdering Amess after he voted in parliament for airstrikes in Syria.

The court at London’s Old Bailey heard that Ali stabbed Amess more than 20 times with a foot-long carving knife in Leigh-on-Sea, southeast England.

JUST IN: Islamic State fanatic Ali Harbi Ali, 26, found guilty of murdering #UK MP Sir David Amess in October last year and planning terror attacks on other lawmakers, including Michael Gove, Conservative Mike Freer, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Judge says. pic.twitter.com/yNgtranJ2F

— GAROWE ONLINE (@GaroweOnline) April 11, 2022

Last week, Ali said in court that he was motivated by a grievance against lawmakers who voted to bomb Syria.

The university drop-out told London’s Old Bailey court that he “decided to do it because I felt that if I could kill someone who made decisions to kill Muslims, it could prevent further harm to those Muslims.”

Frustrated that he could not get out to Syria and fight himself, Ali told jurors: “I decided if I couldn’t… help the Muslims [in Syria], I would do something here.”

He targeted Amess because he had voted in favor of airstrikes against Islamic State jihadists in Syria in 2015.

Asked what he hoped the killing would achieve, Ali said: “For one, he can’t vote again… and perhaps send a message to his colleagues.”

Ali’s other targets included cabinet minister Michael Gove, according to a note found on his phone.

“That was plans I had to attack and hopefully kill Michael Gove at the time.”

“I believe he was someone who was a harm to Muslims,” he added.

People attend a vigil at St Michael and All Angels church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, England, October 17, 2021 for Conservative MP Sir David Amess who died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery on Friday. (Kirsty O’Connor/PA via AP)

Ali, from north London, arranged an appointment with Amess, 69, by telling the politician’s office that he was a healthcare worker and wished to talk about local issues.

Amess, a father of five, was a long-serving member of parliament for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative party.

Prosecutor Tom Little earlier told the court that Ali had been determined to carry out a terror attack “for a number of years,” and had bought the knife allegedly used to kill the lawmaker in 2016.

Ali was spotted outside other MPs’ constituency offices while mobile phone data placed him near parliament seven times between July and September 2021, Little has noted.

The killing of Amess, the second of a British MP within five years, shocked the country and led to calls for better security for elected representatives.