The man charged with the brutal street killing of UK’s first-time woman lawmaker JO Cox gave his name as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain” when he appeared in a court here, as the European Union referendum campaigning was suspended nationally until Sunday in tribute to her.
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An image and floral tributes for Jo Cox, lay on Parliament Square, outside the House of Parliament in London, Friday, June 17, 2016, after the 41-year-old British Member of Parliament was fatally injured Thursday in northern En…
Nevertheless, Thomas Mair, the man accused of shooting Cox on Thursday, may have found a way to answer in the least productive way possible.
Mair’s call for “freedom for Britain” echoes the rhetoric of anti-E.U. campaigners, who have urged citizens to declare their independence from an organization they blame for bringing hundreds of thousands of immigrants to the United Kingdom’s shores.
Mr Mair, who was handcuffed and wearing a grey tracksuit, was reportedly silent when asked to provide his date of birth and address.
“Bearing in mind the name he has just given, he ought to be seen by a psychiatrist”, Deputy Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot told the court.
Anna Turley, like Cox a lawmaker elected previous year for the opposition Labour Party, said the only security measure she has been provided when pressing the flesh in her North Yorkshire district is a police-summoning alarm on her keychain.
The case is also being by handled by the counter-terrorism unit of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service.
Prosecutor David Cawthorne told the court that those who witnessed the attack said Cox had been repeatedly stabbed and then shot three times as she lay on the ground.
“I asked him to come back on Thursday to discuss it all and have a drink, but he never came back”, she said.
On Friday, Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said she was “horrified by the assassination” of the Labour MP and called her a “rising star”.
52-year-old Thomas Mair has been charged with a string of offences including murder, grievous bodily harm and possession of a firearm.
The magistrate ordered that Mair be remanded in custody until his next appearance, at the Old Bailey on Monday.
The killing has shocked the nation.
“Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy, and a zest for life that would exhausted most people”. Vigils were held across the country last evening in memory of the Labour MP and Parliament will be recalled on Monday to allow MPs to pay further tributes.
Polls have suggested the vote hangs in the balance, but in the last week a series of surveys have indicated that the campaign to leave had been taking the lead. Cox’s husband, Brendan, thanked supporters Saturday.
The Conservative Party has also announced that it will not contest a future by election for Batley and Spen out of respect to Cox.
The President, who is on a tour of several USA national parks with his family, spoke on the phone with Brendan Cox while he was travelling on Air Force One.
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The International Monetary Fund, which has previously warned that Britain and the world economy could be hit by a so-called Brexit, said on Saturday an exit could leave Britain’s economy more than 5 percent smaller by 2019.
