A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes Monday before finding a fervent Islamic State supporter guilty of stabbing lawmaker David Amess to death a slaying that shocked the nation and sparked calls for increased police protection for politicians.
LONDON -- A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes Monday before finding a fervent ISIS supporter guilty of stabbing lawmaker David Amess to death a slaying that shocked the nation and sparked calls for increased police protection for politicians.
Ali, who had spent years researching and planning potential attacks on lawmakers, had defended his actions by saying Amess deserved to die as a result of voting for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015. Opening the trial, prosecutor Tom Little said the case was “nothing less than an assassination” carried out because of a “warped and twisted and violent ideology.”
Little said Ali bought the knife used to attack Amess five years earlier, and that Ali tricked his way into meeting Amess by pretending to be one of his constituents.