Judge gives IS sympathizer life in prison for killing British lawmaker David Amess

April 13 (UPI) -- A Briton with militant sympathies for the Islamic State terror group was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for killing British lawmaker David Amess in a shocking stabbing attack six months ago.

A British judge handed the sentence to Ali Harbi Ali, a 26-year-old IS sympathizer who was convicted on Monday of killing Amess.

Ali, a British man with Somali heritage, traveled from his north London home -- with a 12-inch knife -- to see Amess during a public meeting with constituents last October. Angry at Amess for supporting British bombings in Syria against the government of dictator Bashar Al Assad, Ali stabbed the lawmaker numerous times at the meeting.

"This was a murder that struck at the heart of our democracy," British High Court Judge Nigel Hamilton Sweeney said at the Central Criminal Court during sentencing on Wednesday, according to the Evening Standard.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lays flowers at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Britain, on October 16, 2021. British lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death at the church a day earlier by a disgruntled man who was sympathetic to the Islamic State terror group. File Photo by No. 10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons via EPA-EFE

"David was a man of the greatest substance, and he had done nothing whatsoever to justify the attack upon him, let alone his murder."

It took a jury less than 20 minutes to convict Ali for Amess' death on Monday.

Wednesday's punishment was a whole-life sentence, which means there is no possibility of parole.

Ali, described as "bloodthirsty" by prosecutors, said he had no regrets for killing Amess due to his voting in Parliament for Syrian airstrikes in 2014 and 2015. He declined to take the stand as his verdict was read on Monday, citing "religious grounds."

Investigators said that Ali had researched other politicians as potential targets -- including British Labor Party leader Keir Starmer, defense minister Ben Wallace and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab -- before settling on the 69-year-old Amess.