Manchester Arena bomber's brother pleads not guilty to 22 murders

Hashem Abedi, the younger brother of the suicide bomber who killed 22 people and injured 260 others at an Ariana Grande concert, has pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, months after being arrested by the British police in July. Hashem had been charged with 22 counts of murder, the attempted murder of the victims who were injured in the incident, and conspiring with his brother Salman Abedi who wore a suicide vest at the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017. 

Denies counts of murder

Hashem Abedi, who had travelled to Libya before Salman detonated his suicide vest during the concert, pleaded not guilty to every charge which was reportedly read out one by one over a period of six minutes. He did the same even in July and was detained in Libya which was also the homeland of his parents. Hashem was later extradited to Britain after a 15-minute hearing in which he had only confirmed his name, date of birth along with his British nationality. The investigative officials believe that the younger brother had played a major role in planning of the suicide bombing which is denoted as the deadliest string of attacks in London and Manchester in 2017. 

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Placed in solitary confinement

Hashem had also reportedly been in solitary confinement while being held by Tripoli-based militia Special Deterrence Force. According to Abedi's lawyer, his client was tortured and also forced to sign a confession under pressure. Moreover, Salman's brother did not contest extradition because he wanted to return to Britain in order to clear his name from the case. During the hearing, the senior judge Justice Baker put off the trial from November 11 to January 13. Once it gets underway at the Old Bailey, the case is expected to last for nearly eight weeks. However, Abedi will be remanded in custody at Belmarsh until then. 

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Manchester Arena Attack

The Manchester Arena suicide bombing took place during Grande's concert when people were leaving the Arena. Including the attacker, it killed 22 people and injured 260 people by the bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi, who is identified as a 22-year-old man from Libya. He reportedly had majorly acted alone which proves the suspicions of the officials of Salman being part of the terrorist network. Since the London bombings of 2005, this was also the deadliest and the first suicide bombing case in the UK. Nearly 14,200 people had attended the concert and people were killed up to 66 feet away from the bomber. 

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(With AP inputs)