Hashem Abedi (born 1997) was a Libyan-British Islamic State sympathizer and, along with his brother Salman Abedi, one of the masterminds of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
Biography[]
Hashem Abedi was born in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, England in 1997 to Libyan Salafist refugee parents; he was the younger brother of Salman Abedi. The Abedi family was traditionalistic and very religious, and the father was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group organization. In 2014, the brothers returned to Libya to join their parents, who had returned following the end of the Libyan Civil War, only to be brought back to England by the Royal Navy in a "rescue" operation. By that time, Salman had joined the Islamic State's Battar Brigade during the Second Libyan Civil War and been wounded in combat at Ajdabiya, and the two brothers became radical Islamists. In 2017, following the death of one of their Muslim friends at the hands of a gang in Manchester, Salman swore vengeance at his friend's funeral. Hashem - based in Libya - helped his brother coordinate a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert, resulting in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing on 22 May 2017. The attack killed 22 (plus Salman, the bomber) and wounded 139, and, on 1 November 2017, the British government requested that the Libyan government extradite Abedi to the United Kingdom to face trial for his role in the attack. On 17 July 2019, he was charged with murder and several other charges, and his trial began on 5 February 2020. On 17 March, he was found guilty on 22 charges of murder for helping his brother source the materials used to make the explosives, and, on 20 August 2020, he was sentenced to a minimum of 55 years in prison; as he was 20 at the time of the attack, under the age of 21, he was ineligible for a life sentence.