The brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi has been found guilty of murder, over the 2017 attack that killed 22 people.
Hashem Abedi, 22, has been found guilty of murdering 22 people in the 2017 attack.
He had denied conspiring with his brother, Salman, to plan the “sudden and lethal” blast which killed or injured nearly 1,000 people at the Ariana Grande concert.
But the Old Bailey heard the pair “worked together” to source material use in the blast, which killed 25-year-old Salman.
The court heard both brothers asked friends in Manchester's Libyan community to help buy chemicals from Amazon.
It is believed the pair had the chemicals delivered to a variety of different addresses across the city and stockpiled them at safehouses.
Salman and Hashem swapped between 11 different mobile phones in fiver months and used a variety of vehicles to transport components, the court was told.
Prosecutors said Salman had used "benefits cash" to pay for the bomb and said the plan was briefly halted when their parents insisted they join them in Libya.
It forced them to hide the chemicals they bought in a second-hand Nissan Micra which was bought for £250 the day before they left the UK.
Salman spent less than a month in Libya before flying back to the UK and he constructed the killer bomb in a one-bedroom short-term let in central Manchester.
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough said he was certain Hashem took a four-minute phone call from Salman on the evening of the bombing.
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He said: "At that point he (Salman) is getting that last-minute inspiration (from Hashem) – that last-minute advice – and he’s telling him what he’s about to do.
"These two brothers are literally hand in glove in this process."
Hashem declined to give evidence and had tried to ‘point the finger of responsibility’ at his dead brother in a police statement.
But Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said: ‘At its most fundamental level, it was an attempt to evade responsibility for his own culpability, for the cruel and cowardly carnage that took place at the Arena that night."
Det Barraclough said: "If you look at these two brothers, they are not kids caught in the headlights of something they don’t understand.
"These two men are the real deal, these are proper jihadis – you do not walk into a space like the Manchester Arena and kill yourself with an enormous bomb like that, taking 22 innocent lives with you, if you are not a proper jihadist.
"He was with his brother throughout the entire process of making this explosive and building this bomb, I believe he provided encouragement right up to the end.
"This was all about the sick ideology of Islamic State and this desire for martyrdom."
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Lawyer Victoria Higgins, of Slater and Gordon, which represented 11 of the bereaved families, said: "Families have waited a long time to see Hashem Abedi face justice for his crimes and I think the overwhelming emotion for most will be one of relief that he cannot hurt anyone else.
"It has been incredibly painful for them to hear, in detail, what happened to their loved ones and the calculated way in which the Abedi brothers plotted to end their lives."
A public inquiry into the bombing is due to begin in June.
- Crime
- Terror
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