A young supporter of the Islamic State group was sentenced on Wednesday April 13 to life in prison without the possibility of release for the assassination of British MP David Amess. The death of this member of the Conservative Party, veteran of the House of Commons, elected without interruption since 1983 in Essex (east of London), had caused very strong emotion in the United Kingdom, where Parliament remains the base of the democracy.
Sentencing Ali Harbi Ali, 26, Nigel Sweeney, a judge at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London, said he had no ” no doubt “ on the need to inflict on him total life imprisonment – an extremely rare sentence in the United Kingdom – for the assassination with a knife of the elected during a parliamentary permanence, on October 15. “This is an assassination that struck the heart of our democracy”Mr. Sweeney said.
“Act of Vengeance”
Prosecutor Tom Little had pointed out that the murder of Mr. Amess was a “act of revenge”premeditated “long time” and affecting an elected official carrying out his mission.
Ali Harbi Ali, who was born and raised in London in a family of Somali origin, was found guilty on Monday of murder and preparation of terrorist acts. The young man had pleaded not guilty, but he had declared last week at the hearing to have targeted the 69-year-old elected official because the latter had voted in favor of airstrikes in Syria. Frustrated at not going to fight in the country himself with IS, the accused told himself that he had to “try to do something here to help Muslims there”.
I welcome the award given today. We will never allow those who commit acts of evil to triumph over democracy. W… https://t.co/mEY04abun7
“I am delighted with the sentence pronounced today”reacted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “We will never allow those who commit evil acts to triumph over democracy. » The attack occurred while Mr. Amess received his constituents in a Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, located 60 kilometers east of London. The elected conservative had been stabbed twenty times.
His assistant, Julie Cushion, said in a statement that she could not “never forget the cry” of his colleague Barbara at the time of the attack. She also described the look “blissful and self-satisfied” of the aggressor after the tragedy. “It breaks our hearts to know that our husband and father had to greet the murderer with a friendly smile”David Amess’ family said in a statement.
The trauma of the assassination of Jo Cox rekindled
The death of David Amess, elected since 1983, had rekindled the trauma of the assassination of Labor elected Jo Cox in June 2016. This 41-year-old MP had been killed by several bullets and stab wounds a week before the British referendum on membership of the European Union.
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.
Ali Harbi Ali had, according to British media, briefly completed a counter-radicalization program, without being considered at risk by the security services. In addition to his full life sentence for the assassination of David Amess, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for “preparing acts of terrorism”.
He had considered killing other MPs and had prowled around Parliament armed with a knife last summer. He had conducted research on several elected officials and had visited several times near the home of Minister Michael Gove. Ali Harbi Ali was arrested a few minutes after the tragedy by two policemen armed only with truncheons and tear gas.
The UK has seen several jihadist knife attacks in recent years, some claimed by IS. No claims have been made public since Mr. Amess’ death.
A month after the death of Mr. Amess and the day after the explosion of a taxi in front of a hospital in Liverpool (northern England), considered by the police to be an attack, the government had noted in ” severe “ the level of terrorist threat on British soil. He has since been downgraded to ” important “.
