DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A senior Syrian legislator has blasted a U.S. court verdict that blamed Damascus for the killing of an American journalist, saying it was based on "fortune telling" rather than an investigation in accordance with the law.

Syria's deputy Parliament speaker Najdat Anzour reiterated to The Associated Press on Friday previous statements by government officials that Marie Colvin had entered the country illegally.

A Washington judge this week hit the Syrian government with a $302 million judgment over the 2012 death of Colvin, a longtime foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson concluded the Syrian military had deliberately targeted the makeshift media center in the city of Homs where Colvin and other journalists were working.

"We don't know who killed her," Anzour said.