Families’ anger as Arena bomber’s brother f lees UK
RELATIVES of victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack yesterday said they were appalled the bomber’s older brother was allowed to flee the UK a day after being stopped at an airport by police.
Officers using counter-terrorism powers interviewed Ismail Abedi, 28, in August, causing him to miss his flight, the inquiry into the atrocity was told.
But the following day he returned Manchester airport and was allowed to board a plane at to an unknown destination. He has not returned.
Ismail had been due to appear at the inquiry yesterday to answer questions about the radicalisation of his brother Salman. Salman murdered 22 men, women and children and injured hundreds more by detonating a backpack at the end of a pop concert at the Manchester venue in 2017.
A second brother, Hashem, 24, is serving life for helping build the bomb. Sir John Saunders, chairman of the inquiry, said he would be seeking a detailed explanation from Greater Manchester Police about why they believed they did not have the powers to detain Ismail and why the inquiry was not informed about his departure until August 31, two days after he had left.
Paul Greaney, QC, counsel to the inquiry, said it was a ‘matter of doubt’ whether any legal action could have been taken by inquiry lawyers to prevent Ismail leaving. But he said they had lost the opportunity to pursue that route. He added that police ‘considered there was simply no power available to them to prevent his departure when he did, and they may well be right’.
But Ismail was able to ‘effectively laugh in the face of the inquiry’ which ‘should never be permitted to occur again’. the barrister added.
On Wednesday, Mr Greaney said, the inquiry had received a ‘disgraceful’ statement from Ismail’s solicitor which made it plain his failure to attend was ‘entirely deliberate’.
In a statement victims’ families branded Ismail a coward. ‘Despite professing his innocence and claiming to disassociate himself from radical ide
‘Laugh in the face of inquiry’
ology and terrorism, he consciously chose not to attend,’ the families said.
‘A man who had genuinely rejected extremism would want to help the search for truth. Ismail Abedi is clearly not such a person but has taken the coward’s way out. His absence speaks volumes.
‘We are appalled to learn Ismail Abedi left the country... We are shocked this can have been allowed to happen.’
Caroline Curry and Mark and Lisa Rutherford, whose children, Liam and Chloe, were killed, added: ‘Learning that he was allowed to leave by Greater Manchester Police is very difficult to accept.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said it would not be making any comment.