An Islamic State sympathizer was found guilty of murdering a conservative member of Parliament.
A jury found Ali Harbi Ali guilty of murder and preparing acts of terrorism. Police found and arrested Ali immediately after he stabbed Sir David Amess 20 times.
Ali’s murder of Amess was “nothing less than an assassination” carried out because of a “warped and twisted and violent ideology,” according to prosecutor Tom Little.
The jury took just 18 minutes to convict Ali, according to the BBC. The 26-year-old denied the charges levied at him, claiming he targeted Amess over his support of airstrikes in Syria.
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Prosecutors told the jury that Ali had scoped out the church where he assaulted Amess and planned to attack other members of Parliament. Other targets included Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, who Ali claimed was “a harm to Muslims.”
Ali emailed Amess’s office on Sept. 27, claiming to be a healthcare worker moving into his constituency, according to documentation released during the trial. With that claim, Ali was allowed to attend a meeting Amess’s office set up with voters on Oct. 15 in a Methodist church. Ali stabbed and killed Amess at that meeting.
Ali claimed he wanted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, but it was too “difficult.” Ali said he stayed in the United Kingdom so he could “help Muslims here” instead.
Ali didn’t express any regrets regarding the murder, saying, “If I thought I did anything wrong, I wouldn’t have done it.”
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The U.K.’s Metropolitan Police declared the stabbing was a terrorist act on the day of the attack, which allowed the police’s Counter Terrorism Command to lead the investigation. Police filed murder and terror charges against Ali on Oct. 21.
Ali will be sentenced on Wednesday, according to the justice overseeing the case.
