A man has been convicted at the Old Bailey of the terrorist assassination of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess. Ali Harbi Ali, 26, stabbed Amess to death on 15 October 2021, fuelled by Islamic State propaganda and having spent at least two years searching for an MP to murder. Ali was being radicalised in 2014 at the same time he was going through Prevent, the official UK anti-radicalisation scheme.
Prosecutors said he was a "committed, fanatical, radicalised Islamist terrorist". "This was a horrific act of terrorism motivated by religious and ideological beliefs," said Nick Price, Head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Counter Terrorism Division. "Ali chose to commit this abhorrent crime for his own selfish and hateful reasons. "The killing of 69-year-old Amess, a married father of five children and a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, sent shockwaves through Westminster and led to calls for better security for members of parliament (MPs), coming just five years after another lawmaker was murdered.