UK: Brother of Manchester bomber found guilty of murder

By Karim El-Bar

LONDON (AA) - A British court found on Tuesday the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber guilty of 22 counts of murder.

Hashem Abedi, 22, was found to have conspired with his brother Salman Abedi, the latter of which detonated a suicide vest at a music concert in May 2017.

The attack killed Salman and 22 others, as well as injuring up to a thousand people. It was the worst terrorist attack in the U.K. since the 7/7 bombings, a series of terror attacks that rocked London on July 7, 2005.

Hashem denied he was involved as he was out of the country at the time of the attack, but his DNA and fingerprints were found at the flat where the attack’s explosives were made.

He was not in court to hear the ruling against him as he had withdrawn from legal proceedings and fired his entire defense team.

Director of Public Prosecutions Max Hill told Sky News “that this was a two-man job. These men planned it together and obviously, tragically, it only took one man to blow up the device and kill so many people.”

Hashem will be sentenced at a later date, and a public inquiry into the bombing will start later on this year.