Far-right Loner Jailed For Life In Murder Of British MP

LONDON, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Nov, 2016 ) - A far-right extremist was sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment without the possibility of release for murdering British MP Jo Cox a week before Britain's EU referendum in a "politically motivated" attack.

"Because she was a member of parliament your crime has an additional dimension that calls for particular punishment," judge Alan Wilkie told Thomas Mair, 53, as he issued the rare "whole life term" punishment.

"There is no doubt it was done to further a political motive," he said. The jury at London's central criminal court convicted Mair of killing the mother-of-two, who campaigned for Britain to stay in the European Union, as she arrived at a library to meet her constituents on June 16.

Mair showed no emotion as the sentence was read out. The court earlier heard that Mair -- who refused to give evidence in his own defence -- shouted "Britain first" as he fired three shots at the lawmaker and stabbed her 15 times in Birstall, northern England.

Asked to give his name at an earlier hearing, he said: "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain". Following the verdict, Cox's husband Brendan called the murder "a political act and an act of terrorism." "We have no interest in the perpetrator, we only feel pity for him," he added, saying his family's life had "collapsed" following the murder.

"All the ones who try to divide us will fight an unassailable wall of tolerance," he said.