Man accused of killing UK lawmaker looked at targetting minister, court hears

A general view of the building of Central Criminal Court on the day of the trial of Ali Harbi Ali, who is accused of murdering MP David Amess, in London, Britain, March 21, 2022. REUTERS/May James

LONDON (Reuters) -The British lawmaker David Amess who was murdered last year was "assassinated for terrorist purposes" by a man who had considered other targets, including cabinet minister Michael Gove, a London court was told on Monday.

Ali Harbi Ali, 26, a British citizen and son of an ex-media adviser to a former prime minister of Somalia, denies the murder of Amess, who was knifed to death in a church in Leigh-on-Sea, east of London.

Prosecutors said the killing was revenge for the lawmaker's support for airstrikes on Syria. Ali had hoped police would shoot him dead at the scene so he would become a martyr, the court was told.

Ali had spent years planning an attack, buying the knife used in the killing five years earlier and had previously carried out reconnaissance on the home of Gove and the office of Conservative lawmaker Mike Freer, the court heard.

Amess was murdered "because of a warped and twisted and violent ideology", Tom Little, a lawyer for the prosecution, told the court on the opening day of the trial. "This is a case involving a cold and calculated murder."

The killing of 69-year-old Amess, a married father of five children, sent shockwaves through Westminster and led to calls for better security for members of parliament, coming just five years after another lawmaker was murdered on the street.

British lawmakers regularly hold "surgeries", or one-to-one meetings, with voters in their constituencies, a tradition considered a bedrock of democracy. But with little or no security and an emphasis on access for all, surgeries can make lawmakers vulnerable.

On Oct. 15, Ali made an appointment to meet Amess who was holding a constituency surgery at the Belfairs Methodist Church on the pretext he had recently moved to the area.

At their meeting in an office at the back of the church, he tried to engage Amess in conversation about foreign policy and was seen using his mobile phone. The prosecution said he then apologised, produced a knife and stabbed him in a "vicious and frenzied attack".

Ali, who appeared in the dock wearing a black shirt and black-rimmed glasses, also denies preparing acts of terrorism.

Amess was first elected to parliament to represent the town of Basildon in 1983, and then nearby Southend West in 1997. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2015 for his public service.

(Reporting by Andy MacAskill, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)