‘You’re as guilty of murder as your bomber brother’
22-year-old helped plan Manchester Arena atrocity, jury is told
THE brother of the Manchester Arena bomber helped him plot the atrocity, a court heard yesterday.
Hashem Abedi allegedly bought chemicals, screws and nails to create a home-made explosive device.
He was not present when older brother Salman, 22, used a lethal backpack bomb to claim 22 lives.
But Hashem, now 22, shared the goal ‘to kill and to maim as many people as possible’ in May 2017, the Old Bailey was told.
Duncan Penny, prosecuting, said the brothers spent months planning the attack at the end of a show by American pop star Ariana Grande.
‘This defendant is just as guilty of the murder of the 22 people killed as his brother,’ said the QC.
‘The bomb was designed to kill and to maim as many people as possible. It was packed with lethal shrapnel and it was detonated in the middle of a crowd in a very public area – the intention being to kill and inflict maximum damage.
‘The law is that Hashem Abedi is just as responsible for this atrocity as if he had selected the target and detonated the bomb himself.’
When the bomb went off, the foyer of Manchester Arena was packed with young music fans and parents waiting to pick up their children.
The explosion killed 19 people instantly and another three died at the scene, including the youngest victim, eight-year- old Saffie Roussos.
Hundreds of others were injured or traumatised by the attack. Police have identified nearly 1,000 victims, Mr Penny said.
Salman himself was ‘dismembered’ and a map shown to the jury appeared to place his head and upper torso several yards from the centre of the blast.
The jury was told that the brothers, who were both born in Britain, had been living in Manchester alone after their parents returned to their home country of Libya with their three youngest children.
In the years before the attack both Abedis, particularly Salman, had become increasingly religious, showing some signs of radicalisation, it is alleged.
The court heard that, between
January and April 2017, the pair set up fake online bank accounts and persuaded friends to let them use their Amazon shopping accounts to buy 16 litres of sulphuric acid and 55 litres of hydrogen peroxide.
These are key ingredients of explosives used in terrorist attacks around the globe.
The brothers used a ‘cover story’ that the chemicals were needed for a power generator at their home in Libya, or to top up a car battery.
Mr Penny said they experimented with creating a drum and detonator for the bomb from vegetable oil containers from a pizza takeaway where Hashem worked.
A piece of one of the cans was found by forensic officers among the bomb debris.
Mr Penny told the court that pieces of prototype bomb containers and detonators made from the vegetable oil cans were found in wheelie bins and inside a garden shed at the brothers’ home, in the Fallowfield suburb of Manchester, and at a rented flat where Salman built the final bomb.
Pieces of the metal cans found at both locations had Hashem’s fingerprints on them, the jury heard.
However, none of the cans was eventually used to make the final device, Mr Penny said.
Instead it was fashioned out of a money tin and a drinks can.
Hashem had studied electrical installation, and documents discovered at his home showed he had a basic knowledge of electrical circuitry, jurors were told.
A relative, who was studying chemistry, remembered a conversation with Salman in which he spoke of jihad and said: ‘Do chemistry so you can build a bomb.’
Hashem claimed he had ‘no inkling’ of the radicalisation of his brother. He told police he had innocently cut up the cans while ‘idling away hours in the garden shed whilst having a smoke’.
But Mr Penny said this was untrue and the cans had played a ‘pivotal role’ in the story and final design of the arena bomb.
Relatives of the victims were at court two of the Old Bailey to hear the QC open the case.
Hashem denies 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, continues.
‘Designed to kill and maim’