Hashem Abedi has been found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
During the course of a six week trial at the Old Bailey, the jury heard compelling evidence of Hashem’s activities in the months leading up to the attack, which was carried out at the Manchester Arena by his brother Salman on 22 May 2017.
The jury heard evidence about him persuading people to purchase chemicals on his behalf, obtaining metal drums to build prototypes bombs and buying a car that was used to store the bomb components whilst the brothers were overseas in Libya.
The jury took only a few hours to return guilty verdicts on all of the charges put to him.
AC Neil Basu, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing said “The conviction of Abedi is the culmination of over two years work by the CT Policing investigation team in the North West of the network, they have worked tirelessly to bring Abedi to court. The teamwork across agencies, policing and Government to get him returned was extraordinary and a strength of this country’s approach to national security. The next stage will be the Public Inquiry which we of course will continue to support.
“This case shows the importance of our work, particularly the work that is on-going with businesses and the public to help them understand what suspicious activity is and how they can report it. Without your eyes and ears we know that we will not be able to succeed.
“Finally I would just like to take a moment to remember the victims, their families and all of the people who were impacted on by this attack. It is a stark reminder of the important work we are involved with and I know everyone working across policing will do all they can to stop any further attacks.”
To learn more about how you can contribute to the UK’s fight against terrorism visit gov.uk/ACT