Man Charged Under British Terrorism Law in Death of Lawmaker
British authorities said Thursday that a British man has been charged in the fatal stabbing of lawmaker David Amess last week while he was meeting with constituents at a church.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old of Somali heritage, has been charged under the Terrorism Act.
The death of the longtime lawmaker has stunned Britain and particularly its politicians, who have a tradition of being accessible to constituents. His murder has sparked high level conversations about how Britain protects its leaders and confronts domestic extremism.
The 69-year-old Amess was a social conservative who opposed abortion and supported Britain’s exit from the European Union.
His killing came five years after Labour Party legislator Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist, the first British lawmaker to be killed since a peace agreement ended violence in Northern Ireland nearly three decades before.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.