LONDON, April 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A London Court handed down a life imprisonment sentence on convicted terrorist Ali Harbi Ali for the Oct 16, 2021, murder of British Conservative MP Sir David Amess.
Wednesday’s whole-life sentence means there is no possibility of parole for the terrorist killer, who had been found guilty of the charges against him Monday by a jury that needed less than 20 minutes to reach a verdict.
“I’ve done it because of Syria,” Ali said after the attack. “I’ve done it because of the innocent people. I’ve done it because of the bombing. He deserved to die,” the Islamic State sympathizer Ali had said.
The British national Ali had researched other potential targets including Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, Defense Minister Ben Wallace, and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab before choosing Amess.
Ali, of Somali heritage, traveled from his north London home — with a 12-inch knife — to see Amess during a public meeting with constituents. Angry at Amess for supporting British bombings in Syria against the government of dictator Bashar Al Assad, Ali stabbed the lawmaker numerous times.
“This was a murder that struck at the heart of our democracy,” British High Court Judge Nigel Hamilton Sweeney said at the Central Criminal Court during Wednesday’s sentencing.
Ali, described as “bloodthirsty” by prosecutors, said he had no regrets for killing Amess over his voting in Parliament for Syrian airstrikes in 2014 and 2015. He declined to take the stand as his verdict was read Monday, citing “religious grounds.”
“It’s clear that the man who begins a life sentence today is a cold, calculated, and dangerous individual,” Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Jukes said in a statement outside court following the sentencing.
During the trial, prosecutors had said he was a “committed, fanatical, radicalized Islamist terrorist.”
