Warrant issued to arrest Arena bomber’s brother
A SENIOR judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of the older brother of Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi.
Ismail Abedi, 28, fled the country before he was due to give evidence to the continuing public inquiry into the May 2017 atrocity in which 22 people were murdered and hundreds of others were injured as they left an Ariana Grande concert.
Chairman of the inquiry Sir John Saunders successfully applied to a High Court judge for a warrant to be issued for his arrest.
It means Ismail Abedi will be arrested and brought to the inquiry if he returns – and a criminal case will be mounted against him if he fails to return before the inquiry’s conclusion.
Salman Abedi’s younger brother Hashem Abedi is serving a minimum 55 years behind bars for helping his sibling prepare the bomb and the attack.
Paul Greaney QC made the application to Mr Justice Sweeney at the High Court in Manchester yesterday.
Outlining the May 2017 attack, the QC said: “The motivation for the attack is clear. That motivation is violent extremism in the form of adherence to the ideology of Islamic State.”
Ismail Abedi, said the barrister, ‘is the older brother of two murderers’ and has evidence ‘of a high degree of relevance’ to give.
He added: “The respondent undoubtedly has relevant evidence to give as to how Salman Abedi and his younger brother came to be radicalised.”
The QC noted that the Abedis’ father Ramadan had been revealed in evidence at the inquiry on Thursday to have been a member of ‘an Islamist fighting militia,’ the February 17 Martyrs Brigade.
Ramadan was also revealed to have links to the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), said Mr Greaney, adding that there were questions for Ismail Abedi about whether his father’s ‘violent Islamist extremism... rubbed off on his sons.’
Mr Greaney said the inquiry would want to ask Ismail Abedi if he played any part in the radicalisation of Salman Abedi and whether he received any training in Libya.
Ismail Abedi also had ‘evidence to give on the preparation of the bombing given his DNA was found on a hammer in a vehicle in which the explosives were stored.’
The court was told Ismail Abedi was served a notice requiring him to give evidence to the inquiry on October 21 but that on August 28 he was ‘port stopped’ at Manchester Airport, where he told officers he was only leaving the country for three weeks. He was released and
managed to get on a flight to Istanbul the next day. It is believed his family has followed.
Mr Greaney said the inquiry was only informed of his departure on August 31 and so the chairman had ‘no opportunity’ to take action. The day before he was scheduled to give evidence, Ismail Abedi’s solicitor emailed the inquiry solicitor to confirm he was ‘unwilling to attend’ as it risked harm to himself and his family, said the QC. The flight out of the country had been a ‘quite deliberate’ flouting of the requirement to give evidence, he said.
Abedi’s lawyer Rebecca Filletti argued the warrant was ‘not necessary or proportionate given the evidence that might be given.’
She pointed out her client was abroad and so any order could not be enforced.
Ms Filletti pointed out her client had been interviewed by police and had not been charged with any criminal offences and ‘urges caution’ about the alleged forensics evidence against him.
But Mr Justice Sweeney granted the application, which was officially brought against Ismail Abedi’s alias Ben Romdhan.
The judge said he would publish his reasons next week.
The respondent undoubtedly has evidence to give as to how Salman Abedi and his younger brother came to be radicalised
Paul Greaney QC