(BBC) Ali Harbi Ali was born in Southwark, south London, growing up in Croydon. A British national of Somali heritage, he became radicalised by the war in Syria and ultimately decided to kill an MP.
He booked an appointment for 15 October, last year, to meet Tory MP Sir David Amess at a weekly constituency surgery, in Leigh-on-Sea. Once there, he murdered the 69-year-old, stabbing him 21 times. It was an “assassination for terrorist purposes,” the jury at his trial was told.
Now convicted of the murder of Sir David, Harbi Ali’s motives — made clear during police interviews and his trial — reveal a textbook study of radicalisation.
Upset and anger at Syria war
Civil war was raging in Syria as Harbi Ali entered his late teens and he turned to social media to try to understand what was happening.
