Status: October 21, 2021 3:51 p.m.
The suspect in the case of the killed British MP Amess has been charged: the 25-year-old British man of Somali origin is charged with murder and planning terrorist acts.
After the fatal assassination attempt on British Tory MP David Amess, prosecutors have brought murder charges against the 25-year-old suspect. The Crown Prosecution Service announced that he would also have to answer for preparing a terrorist act. The alleged murder had a terrorist background with religious and ideological motives, it said. Initial studies have shown “a possible motivation in connection with Islamist extremism”. The investigators assume a lone perpetrator.
Radicalized during the lockdown
The 69-year-old Conservative MP Amess was stabbed to death on Friday last week during a public consultation in his constituency in the southeastern English county of Essex. The defendant was arrested at the scene.
The alleged perpetrator is reported to have previously attended a government anti-radicalization program. The security authorities did not have him on their radar as a potential threat. He is said to have radicalized himself during the corona lockdown. The defendant’s father was a high-ranking advisor to the Somali government, and his uncle is said to be the East African country’s ambassador to China.
Security precautions tightened
After the crime, Interior Minister Priti Patel ordered that the security precautions for parliamentarians be reviewed and tightened.
The attack was the second murder of a British politician in a meeting with voters in five years. In 2016 Labor MP Jo Cox was stabbed to death by a right-wing extremist in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
The Brexit advocate and animal rights activist Amess had sat in the British House of Commons since 1983. The 69-year-old campaigned vehemently in parliament for the interests of his voters.