Brother of Manchester suicide bomber jailed for at least 55 years

Hashem Abedi, 23, who assisted his brother in the Manchester bombing that killed 22 people. AFP/Greater Manchester Police

A man who helped his elder brother carry out a suicide bomb attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester which killed 22 people was jailed for at least 55 years by a UK court, on Thursday.

Hashem Abedi, 23, was found guilty in March of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. He assisted his younger brother Salman in carrying out the bombing at the Manchester Arena as parents arrived to collect their children at the close of a May 2017 show by the U.S. pop singer.

Handing down the sentence, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, told the Old Bailey court in London: "The defendant and his brother were equally culpable for the deaths and injuries caused by the explosion.

"The stark reality is, these were atrocious crimes. Large in scale, deadly in intent, appalling in their consequences.

"The despair and desolation of the bereaved families has been palpable."

Among the dead were seven children, the youngest aged just eight, while 237 people were injured and hundreds more were reported to have suffered from psychological trauma.

Hashem Abedi was in Libya when the attack took place at the Manchester Arena on the evening of May 22, 2017, but his trial heard he had helped his brother plan it for several months.

Passing sentence on Thursday, Baker, said: "If the defendant, like his brother, had been 21 or over at the time of the offence, the appropriate starting point would have been a whole life order.

"Not only because of the combination of the significant degree of pre-meditation but also because the motivation for them was to advance the ideology of Islamism, a matter distinct to and abhorrent to the vast majority for those who follow the Islamic faith."