Hashem Abedi ‘equally guilty’, hears Manchester trial

Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, has been labelled as ‘just as guilty’ of the murder of the 22 people who died in the attack.

Salman Abedi detonated a ‘large home-made improvised explosive device’ outside an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017, killing 22 people. His 22-year-old brother Hashem is standing trial at the Old Bailey over his ‘role in perpetrating these terrible events’, where he denies the murder of 22 people and the attempted murder of others, as well as conspiring with his brother to cause an explosion.

Duncan Penny QC said the siblings spent ‘months’ planning the attack, telling the trial that the effects of the attack had been ‘both sudden and lethal’ and police had identified ‘nearly 1,000 victims’. This include the 264 concert-goers who were physically injured, while 670 more had since ‘reported psychological trauma as a result of these events’.

He claims that the brothers worked together in the run-up to the attack, sourcing chemicals and experimenting with metal containers to create improvised bombs, and purchasing screws and nails to use as ‘anti-personnel shrapnel’.

Penny also said that the brothers had shown ‘some signs of radicalisation’ in the years before the bombing, ‘Salman more so than Hashem’.