Just as guilty as your brother
MANCHESTER TERROR TRIAL
THE brother of the Manchester Arena bomber was “just as guilty” for the terror attack, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
Hashem Abedi and his killer elder brother Salman had a shared goal to commit mass murder, Duncan Penny QC, prosecuting, said.
The attack killed 22 people, including six girls aged eight to 15, and injured a further 264 when Salman Adebi detonated a bomb in his rucksack at an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.
The jury heard the brothers had spent months stockpiling chemicals and bomb parts.
Mr Penny said: “The prosecution’s case is that this defendant is just as guilty of the murder of the 22 people killed as was his brother.
“He is equally guilty of the attempted murder of many others. The surviving brother is just as responsible for the crimes which resulted in so much death, serious injury and damage.
“This explosion was the culmination of months of planning, experimentation and preparation by the two of them. The defendant through his conduct encouraged and assisted his brother Salman (22, inset below) to carry out this attack. “The bomb which was detonated was self-evidently designed to kill and to maim as many people as possible. It was packed with shrapnel and detonated in the middle of a crowd in a public area, the intention being to kill and inflict maximum damage.’’
Mr Penny said the brothers bought at least 16 litres of chemicals needed to make explosives. Hashem had allegedly taken metal vegetable oil cans from a takeaway where he worked, saying he would sell them for scrap – but part of one was found in debris after the blast, it was alleged.
He also bought a Nissan Micra which he used to store bomb-making equipment, and acquired a flat in a “distant part of Manchester” where the bomb could be manufactured, claimed Mr Penny. Hashem, 22, from Fallowfield, Manchester, denies 22 murders.
The trial continues.