UK woman gets life for stabbing MP over Iraq

A female student, thought to have been converted to violence by a radical preacher currently being hunted in Yemen, was jailed for life on Wednesday for trying to murder an MP in revenge for his having voted for the Iraq war.

Roshonara Choudhry, 21, "coolly and deliberately" knifed former Treasury Minister Stephen Timms twice in the stomach during a regular monthly advice surgery at an east London community centre in May.

"You do not suffer from any mental disease. You have simply committed evil acts coolly and deliberately," said Mr Justice Cooke, sentencing Choudhry at the Old Bailey.

Choudhry, who had told police she had attacked the Labour MP as a punishment and to avenge the people of Iraq, will serve a minimum of 15 years.

Described in court as a high-flying university student who dropped out weeks before carrying out the attack, Choudhry had compiled a list of other politicians who had voted for the 2003 invasion, the Press Association news agency quoted a police source as saying.

She had been radicalised by listening to sermons issued online by Anwar Al Awlaki, an extremist preacher based in Yemen who is wanted by Washington for links to Al Qaeda, a British security source told Reuters.

Prosecutors said an MP's surgery was is "one of the cornerstones of our democracy".

The judge said Choudhry would continue to be a danger to politicians for the foreseeable future.

"You intended to kill in a political cause and to strike at those in government by doing so.

"You did so as a matter of deliberate decision-making, however skewed your reasons, from listening to those Muslims who incite such action on the internet."

The Muslim Council of Britain, the country's largest Muslim umbrella body, said it was appalled by her reasoning.

"Political differences must be resolved in forums of discussion and debate and not by such mindless acts," it said in a statement.

The court heard how Choudhry smiled and pretended she was going to shake hands with Timms before stabbing him with a kitchen knife. Police said he was "extremely fortunate not to have been killed.

"Mr Timms, like all MPs, are entitled to fulfill their role without fear of violence," Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said.

Timms, 55, who was elected to parliament in 1994, has since made a full recovery following surgery.

He told BBC radio it was alarming that she had thrown away a bright future after spending time on the internet.

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