Prosecutors say man charged with killing U.K. lawmaker considered himself affiliated with ISIS

David Amess, a long-serving British lawmaker, was stabbed to death last Friday while meeting with constituents in a local church annex in Southend, Essex. Authorities arrested Ali shortly after and held him for questioning in London under Britain’s Terrorism Act.

The death of Amess, a 69-year-old lawmaker for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, shook Britain, where MPs often meet with the public without security. It was the second killing of a British lawmaker during a public event in recent years: Labour Party member of Parliament Jo Cox was fatally shot and stabbed in 2016 while on her way to meet with constituents.

Appearing in Westminster magistrates court on Thursday afternoon, Ali wore a gray, prison-issue tracksuit and only spoke to confirm his name, age and address. He did not enter a plea.

“Ali considered himself affiliated to Islamic State,” prosecutor James Cable told the court, Reuters reported. Earlier in the day, the Crown Prosecution Service told reporters that the crime “has a terrorist connection, namely that it had both religious and ideological motivations.”

The details of Ali’s alleged affiliation with the Islamic State were not revealed in court on Thursday. The son of a media adviser to a former prime minister of Somalia, had grown up in Croydon, South London.

The Telegraph reported Thursday that Ali had worked with King’s College Hospital in London and underwent training in the radiography department, but that he had not worked for the hospital or Britain’s National Health Service since at least 2019.

The paper had previously reported that in 2014, while still in school, Ali had been referred to Prevent, a British governmental counterterrorism program. He was later declared to not be a risk and he was not flagged to intelligence agencies, the Telegraph reported.

British police have said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with Amess’s death. Ali was placed in custody on Thursday and will appear at the Old Bailey criminal court on Friday.

On Wednesday, British Home Secretary Priti Patel told parliament that the threat level for an attack on an MP was being raised to “substantial,” which means an attack is considered likely.

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