Arena bomber’s brother faces trial over failing to attend public inquiry

The elder brother of Manchester Arena bomb mass murderers Salman and Hashem Abedi will face trial after he failed to comply with a legal requirement to give evidence to the public inquiry into the atrocity. Ishmale Abedi, 28, now also known as Ishmale Ben Romdhan, flew out of the UK in August last year – he was due to give evidence to the inquiry in the October.

And he was warned by a district judge sitting at Manchester magistrates’ court today that he faces being convicted of a criminal offence in his absence if he doesn’t attend the trial on July 14. The inquiry’s legal team also revealed in a brief hearing they have a personal email address for him. They said they would use it to alert him to the hearing and serve evidence.

Nicholas de la Poer QC, attending court on behalf of the chairman of the inquiry Sir John Saunders, said: “To the best of the chairman’s knowledge, he remains out of the jurisdiction.”

READ MORE: Grief, anger, and a sense of betrayal – the feelings that haunt the Manchester Arena families, five years after we lost the 22

Mr Abedi was issued with a summons in May this year to attend court today – Friday – for the hearing, the district judge was told. Mr de la Poer said he was ‘required’ to appear before the chairman to give evidence on October 21, 2021, after a ‘Section 21’ notice was issued.

Section 21 of the Inquiries Act allows the chair of an inquiry to require a person to give evidence. Friday’s hearing was the first under Section 35 of the Inquiries Act, which states a person is guilty of an offence if he or she fails without reasonable excuse to do anything that he or she is required to do by a notice under Section 21.

If proved, a failure to comply with a Section 21 notice carries a maximum penalty of 51 weeks imprisonment. “It is a criminal offence to fail to comply with the terms of the notice,” said Mr de la Poer.

District Judge Jack McGarva was told a warrant for Mr Abedi’s arrest was issued in the High Court in November. It remains in place. “I will adjourn the case for either the defendant to attend or for you to prove the case in his absence,” Judge McGarva told Mr de la Poer. “If he does not attend then, the presumption is that the case should be heard in his absence.”

Mr Abedi, who worked in IT, was described as a key witness for the inquiry, able to answer questions about the radicalisation of his younger brothers, Salman and Hashem, who carried out the bomb plot, murdering 22 bystanders and injuring hundreds more on May 22, 2017.

The High Court heard in November that he has evidence ‘of a high degree of relevance’ to give.

The inquiry heard that on August 28 last year, Mr Abedi, who was arrested and questioned for two weeks after the bombing but never charged with any offence, was ‘port stopped’ at Manchester Airport, where he told police officers he was only leaving the country for three weeks. He was released and managed to get on a flight to Istanbul the next day. It is believed his family has followed, but his current whereabouts are unknown.

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said the inquiry was only informed of his departure on August 31, so the chairman had ‘no opportunity’ to take action. The day before he was scheduled to give evidence, Mr Abedi’s solicitor emailed the inquiry solicitor to confirm he was ‘unwilling to attend’ as it risked harm to himself and his family, said the QC.

Oral evidence at the inquiry came to an end in March this year after 196 days. Sir John is expected to publish his second report, focusing on the response of the emergency services to the attack, later in the summer.

The third and final report, considering whether the security services and counter-terrorism police could, and should, have prevented the bombing, and the radicalisation of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, will follow.

Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a device in a rucksack as crowds left an Ariana Grande concert at the venue. Sixty three people were also seriously injured, with 111 hospitalised. Hashem Abedi, 24, was jailed for life for the 22 murders by assisting the bomb plot.

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