London — 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, 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 MP and stabbed her 15 times in Birstall, northern England. Asked to give his name at an earl...

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