Man found guilty of murdering British lawmaker
A man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the June murder of British member of Parliament Jo Cox.
Thomas Mair, who yelled “Britain first” when he attacked Cox with a gun and a dagger, was found guilty of killing the Labour Party member in what prosecutors called an act of far-right terrorism, according to The Associated Press.
{mosads}Judge Alan Wilkie sentenced Mair to life in prison with no chance of parole and said the attack was carried out to advance a cause “of violent white supremacism associated with Nazism,” according to the AP.
Prosecutors found Nazi memorabilia and literature in Mair’s home. The court entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf after Mair refused to enter a plea, and lawyers didn’t present evidence in his defense, the AP reported.
The Crown Prosecution Service, the main prosecuting arm of Great Britain, issued a statement following the verdict calling the attack terrorism.
“Mair has offered no explanation for his actions but the prosecution was able to demonstrate that, motivated by hate, his pre-meditated crimes were nothing less than acts of terrorism designed to advance his twisted ideology,” the statement read, according to the BBC.
Cox’s husband, Brendan Cox, read a statement to the court following the jury’s findings.
“We feel nothing but pity for him that his life was so devoid of love and filled with hatred, his only way of finding meaning was to attack a woman who represented all that was good about the country in an act of supreme cowardice,” he said.
Cox, who supported Great Britain remaining in the European Union, was killed a week before the country voted to leave the EU.
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