The man accused of murdering Sir David Amess has been found guilty.
Ali Harbi Ali stabbed the Southend West MP to death on 15 October last year at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. The jury at Old Bailey deliberated for just 18 minutes before convicting him of murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
He refused to stand in the dock as the verdict was returned, on “religious grounds”.
Giving evidence last week, Ali told the court that he had killed the 69-year-old Catholic MP because he had voted in favour of airstrikes on Syria. He also said that Sir David’s membership of the Conservative Friends of Israel was a “big problem”.
He claimed to have planned attacks on other MPs, including the cabinet minister Michael Gove. He had also attended a surgery of the London MP Mike Freer in Finchley before the attack in Essex.
In what has been described as a “textbook radicalisation”, Ali said that Islamic State’s reports of the war in Syria put him under an obligation to act.
He described the message of the propaganda: “You’re in the place where we hate everybody already – do something there.
When he was unable to travel to fight, he decided to murder an MP.
“I thought if I couldn’t go join Islamic State I should try and do something for Muslims here.”
He expressed no regret for his actions, telling the court: “If I thought I did anything wrong I wouldn’t have done it.”
The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, said that Ali had no legal defence. He thanked the jury, saying: “It cannot have been easy to listen to the evidence that you listened to.” He said he would sentence Ali on Wednesday.
Evidence previously shown to the court included recordings of the 999 call by witnesses to the murder, and police footage of Ali’s arrest by two unarmed officers, who have since been decorated for bravery by Essex Police.
Footage of Ali in detention showed him answering police questions: “I mean, I guess yeah I killed an MP and I done it, yeah.”
Brendan Cox, the widower the Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016, responded to the verdict:
“Like the killing of Jo, all it has achieved politically has been to allow millions of people of learn about David’s decency and the causes he cared about.”
Among various measures to follow the murder, the College of Policing has revised its guidance to allow religious ministers to attend to victims at crime scenes, after a priest was denied entry to administer the last rites to Sir David.