Brother of Manchester bomber extradited to UK

LONDON

The younger brother of the Manchester arena bomber, Salman Abedi, is being extradited to the U.K. from Libya, according to British media reports on Wednesday.
22 year-old Hashem Abedi was arrested in the Libyan capital Tripoli a day after his older brother carried out a suicide bombing at the Manchester arena during a concert in May 2017.
The Rada Special Deterrence Force, a militia that had detained Abedi and were holding him since his arrest, handed him over to the British embassy in Tripoli and the interior ministry confirmed that Abedi had been put on a U.K. government plane which left the airport at 10:30 BST.
"I confirm you that Hashem [Abedi] is now in the air on his way to the UK" a spokesman from the militia told Sky News, adding that “he is extradited in accordance to a court verdict”.
The 22 year-old was born in Manchester and was an engineering student at the city’s university. He travelled to Libya a few days before the attack and according to police was in regular contact with his brother Salman. According to the militia, Abedi was a member of Daesh.
Abedi will be interviewed by U.K. authorities as greater Manchester police had issued an arrest warrant in November 2017 in relation to the attack carried out by his brother.
In April 2019 a Libyan court had agreed to extradite Abedi as he was a British citizen. However, the process was delayed after the Libyan capital came under attack by forces loyal renegade general and warlord Khalifa Haftar.
In July 2018, the two brothers, along with 100 other British citizens, were evacuated from Libya by the royal navy. One month prior to the evacuation, U.K. intelligence services were monitoring Salman Abedi.
On 22 May 2017 Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at the Manchester arena in which American pop star Ariana Grande was performing. 22 people were killed and 112 were injured.
The families of the victims have been notified of the extradition by the Greater Manchester Police.