It took more than two years for British diplomats to secure the extradition of Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, amid claims the UK government paid £9m in “bribery” aid and was complicit in his torture under Boris Johnson’s watch as foreign secretary. Abedi, now 22, the younger of the two brothers, was arrested in Libya alongside his father, Ramadan, shortly after his older brother, Salman, carried out the attack on 22 May 2017. Counter-terrorism officers had been granted a warrant for Abedi’s arrest – so he could face mass murder charges for his role in planning the deadliest terrorist attack on UK soil since the 7/7 bombings – but it would take them years to negotiate his extradition.
In closed court hearings, which could not be reported under UK law until the jury reached its verdict, the British government was accused of bribing Libyan authorities with a multimillion pound aid deal in return for Abedi’s extradition. Abedi was finally extradited in July 2019, almost two years after Boris Johnson – the then foreign secretary – visited Tripoli and allegedly offered a £9.2mpackage to help Libya deal with the terrorist threat and tackle illegal migration. During the visit in August 2017, Johnson’s second to the country in less than six months, he met the prime minister, Fayyez Al-Serraj, the foreign minister, Mohamed Siala, and the president of Libya’s high state council, Abdurrahman Swehli. The four men discussed how the UK could support Libya in combating terrorism.
However, Abedi’s barrister, Stephen Kamlish, told the Old Bailey in London that the aid money was a bribe to secure his client’s extradition, and that the process had been illegal under Libyan law. “The British were effectively having to bribe the Libyans,” he said. After their arrest, Abedi and his father were held by Rada Special Deterrence Force, the most powerful of Tripoli’s militias, at its base at Mitiga airport alongside dozens of other terrorist suspects and fighters. With the jail being repeatedly attacked by rival militias trying to free their members, the race to extradite Abedi to the UK began.
Read more: Nazia Parveen, Guardian, https://is.gd/GhiITk
