CCTV released of ‘murder suspect on day of attack’
THE suspect in the murder of Sir David Amess appears to be captured in CCTV footage walking calmly down a street – just hours before the fatal stabbing of the MP.
Ali Harbi Ali, 25, who has been arrested on suspicion of murder, was seen in north London on Friday morning.
He was wearing a green parka jacket, with a backpack across his right shoulder and his hand in his left pocket.
The footage was taken outside a convenience store on Highgate Road at 8.44am. Ali, who lived a few streets away, is understood to have been walking towards Gospel Oak train station at the time.
Police are investigating whether he travelled by train from Gospel Oak to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David, 69, was stabbed to death at a routine constituency surgery at the town’s Belfairs Methodist Church.
Police asked the London shop manager to share his CCTV footage on Saturday morning, and it was released by Sky News.
Meanwhile a phone call made by Ali as Sir David lay dying was also being investigated, which may provide useful information.
The suspect Ali, 25, is believed to have used his mobile in the minutes following the attack.
He was arrested at the scene shortly afterwards.
There is still no clear indication why Sir David, 69, was targeted.
A former friend of the suspect described him as a “huge fan” of hate preacher Anjem Choudary and suggested Ali may have been “self-radicalised” by watching online videos of the extremist.
The friend said Ali had been a normal, “really lovely” lad until sixth-form age when he began to hold extremist views. “He watched a lot of extreme videos including those posted by Choudary and his followers,” the friend said. “Everyone used to say to him, ‘But he’s a hate cleric and hates the West,’ but he didn’t care. He became a huge fan.”
Speculation was also growing that the assassination of Sir David could have been inspired by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
Security experts warned of terror outrages in Britain by “lone wolf” attackers emboldened by the jihadists’ return to power in Kabul.
It is understood police officers have so far found no firm affiliation to any political or extremist group.
But security experts have repeatedly warned of “vulnerable or mentally ill” people becoming self- radicalised during lockdown. Ali was not a subject of interest to MI5, it has been reported. Scotland Yard has linked up with other agencies to probe his possible connection to Somalia and Kenya. Sir
David’s public support for Qatar is also being looked at as a possible motive.
The veteran backbencher was chair of the-All-Party Parliamentary British-Qatar Group and visited the country a few days before his death. Qatar supports the regime in Somalia, which is fighting a guerilla war against the Al-Qaeda-linked terror group Al Shabaab. Another theory is that Sir David may well have been singled out simply because he was an establishment figure who was easy to get at.
Ali, whose father was an adviser to a previous Somali prime minister, grew up in Croydon, south London. He has two sisters and a brother.
In his teens, he was referred to the Government’s Prevent programme designed to combat radicalisation.
He is not thought to have stayed on the voluntary initiative for very long and was never suspected of being an active extremist. Neighbours living close to his childhood home recalled how Ali told them he worked for the NHS. Some said he had been training to become a doctor.
He moved out of Croydon and went to live in a council house in Kentish Town, north London. Forensic officers spent several hours at his childhood home in Croydon where his mother still lives and at the council house in Kentish Town.
Ali is being held under the Terrorism Act, and detectives are expected to continue to question him until Friday after a warrant of further detention was granted.