March 18 (UPI) — A London court on Tuesday convicted a man in the terrorist attack that killed 22 concertgoers who’d gone to see singer Ariana Grande in Manchester nearly three years ago.
The court found Hashem Abedi guilty of being an accomplice in the suicide plot, which prosecutors say was carried out by his brother, Salman Abedi, as the crowd exited the concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017.
At trial, prosecutors said Abedi bought bomb-making chemicals, helped buy the vehicle where they were hidden and helped craft the detonator tubes. They argued that his activities made him as responsible for the attack as his brother.
“He is a man who is equally responsible as his brother for this horrendous attack, this monstrous attack,” Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough said. “The way he has conducted himself since he landed demonstrates, even more, the jihadi mindset that would be supportive of the sick ideology of [the Islamic State].”
Although Abedi was in Libya at the time of the attack, investigators said his DNA and fingerprints were in the locations where the bombs were made.
Abedi, who’d fired his defense team, was not in court Tuesday when the verdict was read. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last October.
