Libya planning to extradite Manchester bomber’s brother to the UK

Prime minister Fayez Al Sarraj told the BBC that they will send Hashem Abedi to face questioning in Britain

Hashem Abedi had been detained in Tripoli, Libya for two years. AFP

Libya is planning to extradite the brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi to Britain by the end of the year, Libya’s UN-backed prime minister Fayez Al Sarraj told the BBC in an interview on Wednesday.

Britain last year submitted a request to extradite Hashem Abedi after the bombing in May 2017 in which 22 people – many of them minors – were killed.

Abedi detonated the bomb, killing himself, outside one of the arena exits shortly after the end of a concert by pre-teen idol Ariana Grande.

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Hashem Abedi is suspected of involvement and is wanted by Manchester police on charges of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.

In an interview with the BBC on the sidelines of an international conference in Italy, Mr Sarraj said: “I think from here to the end of this year we will finish all the legal procedures in Libya.

“We are fully cooperating because we understand the suffering of the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

“According to the general prosecutor we can extradite. After we complete the legal process in Libya it is only a matter of time.”

When Britain first made the extradition request in November 2017, the armed group holding him refused it.

The Manchester Arena bombing was Britain’s worst terror attack in more than a decade.

Salman Abedi was born in Manchester in 1994, to parents who had been granted asylum after fleeing Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

He was in Libya just days before the attack.