Hashem Abedi was convicted of 22 counts of murder for his part in the attack at the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017, which was carried out by his older brother, who died in it. Twenty-two people were killed and hundreds were injured. Abedi was in Libya on the night of the attack and was arrested there the next day. He was extradited to the United Kingdom in July 2019, the first suspect to be extradited from Libya to Britain, and in March 2020 a jury at the Central Criminal Court in London, the Old Bailey, found him guilty of 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. On August 20, 2020 the trial judge sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 55 years and told him he may never be released.
Abedi was not at the scene. The judge nonetheless found that he and his brother were equally culpable for the deaths and injuries that followed, and that he had taken an integral part in the planning. The sentence stopped short of a whole-life order only because of his age when the offenses were committed.
The attack took place at the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017. It killed 22 people and the older brother who carried it out. Hundreds were injured.
The investigation was led by Counter Terrorism Policing with Greater Manchester Police. After the verdicts the head of Counter Terrorism Policing described the conviction as the culmination of more than two years of work by the investigation team.
Abedi was in Libya when the attack took place. Police have stated that he was arrested there on May 23, 2017, the day after it. For more than two years he remained in Libya while British prosecutors sought his return. A United Kingdom arrest warrant was issued about six months after the attack, and the Crown Prosecution Service applied for his extradition.
On July 17, 2019 officers escorted him on a flight from Libya to the United Kingdom. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police said at the time that he had been "successfully extradited" for offenses relating to the attack. He was arrested on arrival on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion, and was charged with the murder of the 22 victims, attempted murder of others and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. He was due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court. He was 22 by the time of his trial; he was 20 when the offenses were committed.
The trial before a jury at the Old Bailey lasted about six weeks and ended in March 2020. Abedi denied every charge. Partway through the proceedings he dismissed his legal team and stopped attending court. The judge told the court that he could not compel him to come into the dock, and Abedi was not in the courtroom when the verdicts were announced.
The prosecution case was that he helped prepare the attack in the months before it, working with his older brother. The jury reached unanimous verdicts after retiring for just under five hours. On March 17, 2020 it returned guilty verdicts on all of the charges: 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder that covered the injured, and one count of conspiring with his brother to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
The Director of Public Prosecutions said after the verdicts that Abedi had encouraged and helped his brother, knowing that his brother planned to commit an atrocity, and that he had "blood on his hands" even though he had not carried out the attack himself. The head of Counter Terrorism Policing said the conviction was the result of the work of the whole investigation team and thanked the public for the information they had given.
The judge deferred sentence, and the hearing was held on August 19 and 20, 2020, delayed in part by the restrictions of the pandemic. Abedi refused to attend. On August 20, 2020 the judge passed sentence at the Old Bailey. Abedi was 23.
He received life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 55 years that he must serve before the Parole Board can consider his release. The 1,024 days he had spent in custody before sentence counted toward it. Life terms were imposed on each of the 22 murder counts and on the counts of attempted murder and conspiracy, 24 in all. The judge told him that he may never be released.
A sentence of life without the possibility of release, a whole-life order, was not open to the court. The reason was a plain one: Abedi was under 21 when the offenses were committed, and the court could not impose a whole-life order on an offender of that age. The judge said that had he been 21 or older, the appropriate starting point would have been a whole-life order, and that such a sentence would have been a just one. The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police said that the police would have sought it.
In his remarks the judge found that Abedi's brother had carried out the attack but that Abedi had been an integral part of the preparation, that there was a significant degree of premeditation, and that the brothers were equally culpable for the deaths and injuries caused. The one statement the court made about motive was that the offenses were committed to advance the ideology of Islamism, which he described as abhorrent to the vast majority of Muslims.
In February 2022 Abedi was convicted at Woolwich Crown Court, with two other prisoners serving terrorism sentences, of assault causing actual bodily harm; he was also convicted of assault by beating of an emergency worker. He had denied the charges. The court sentenced him to three years and 10 months.
In 2025 he was charged again, this time with three counts of attempted murder, one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a further offense, all relating to officers working in a prison. He appeared at the Old Bailey and in October 2025 pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. The trial was listed to begin on January 18, 2027 and is expected to last two to three weeks. He is held in custody in the United Kingdom. Until a jury has returned its verdicts, he is accused, not convicted, of those offenses.
A statutory public inquiry into the deaths of the 22 victims was set up in 2019 and led by its chair, a judge. It reported in three volumes.
Volume 1, published on June 17, 2021, examined the security arrangements at the Arena. The chair found that the security arrangements "should have prevented or minimised the devastating impact of the attack" and that the attacker should have been identified as a threat by those responsible for the security of the Arena. Volume 2, published on November 3, 2022, set out the chair's findings and recommendations on the emergency response to the attack. Volume 3, published on March 2, 2023, set out findings and recommendations on radicalization and preventability, and concluded that there had been a significant missed opportunity to take action that might have prevented the attack.
A life sentence carries a minimum term, the period that must be served before parole can be considered; in his case the judge said parole was possible only after the 55 years and that he may never be released. A whole-life order, under which there is no minimum term, was the alternative the court could not impose, because the judge said the offender must be 21 or older for that order, and Abedi was under 21 when the offenses were committed.
The Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, tried the case before a judge and a jury. The 2022 convictions were heard at Woolwich Crown Court, also in London.
Abedi denied all the charges at the 2020 trial and dismissed his lawyers during it. The jury returned guilty verdicts on every count.
The 2025 charges have not been tried. He has pleaded not guilty, and they remain allegations until a jury decides them.
May 22, 2017: The Manchester Arena attack; 22 people killed.
May 23, 2017: Abedi arrested in Libya.
Late 2017: A United Kingdom arrest warrant issued.
July 17, 2019: Extradited to the United Kingdom, arrested and charged.
March 17, 2020: Convicted at the Old Bailey of 22 counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
June 17, 2021: Manchester Arena Inquiry publishes Volume 1.
February 22, 2022: Convicted at Woolwich Crown Court of assault causing actual bodily harm and assault by beating of an emergency worker; sentenced to three years and 10 months.
November 3, 2022: Inquiry publishes Volume 2.
March 2, 2023: Inquiry publishes Volume 3.
October 17, 2025: Pleads not guilty at the Old Bailey to the 2025 charges.
January 18, 2027: Trial on the 2025 charges listed to begin.