London, Feb. 2 (TNS): The man who killed a Muslim worshiper and injured several others last year in a terror attack near a London mosque was sentenced Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 43 years.
Darren Osborne plowed his vehicle into a crowded sidewalk outside Finsbury Park Mosque in north London on June 19, killing Makram Ali, 51, and leaving 12 people injured.
Osborne, 48, was convicted by a court Thursday of murder and attempted murder.
Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said Osborne had been “rapidly radicalized,” adding that his mindset “became one of malevolent hatred,” she said during the sentencing, according to the Judicial Press Office.
“This was a terrorist attack,” she said. “You intended to kill.”
Speaking outside the court, the murdered man’s eldest daughter Ruzina Akhtar said the family welcomed the verdict while describing the torment they had been through since her father’s death.
“Our father, like the victims of most terrorism, was entirely innocent, which makes his death in this violent way all the more hurtful and we cannot imagine the trauma he felt in the last few minutes,” she said in a statement.
“But we will choose to remember our father with happier thoughts. He will never be forgotten, he will always stay in our hearts, his laughter will echo the walls of our home, his smile will be reflected in our eyes, his memories will be alive in our conversations.”
