#Brother of Manchester concert bomber admits ‘full part’ in attack

The brother of the suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert has finally admitted helping plan the 2017 terror attack, officials revealed Monday.

Hashem Abedi, 22, had always denied knowing about his brother Salman Abedi‘s plans for a mass slaughter at the Manchester Arena show that also left hundreds injured.

But he finally confessed to his involvement while behind bars, where he was sentenced to spend at least 55 years after being found guilty of 22 murders, an ongoing public inquiry into the attack was told Monday.

“Hahem Abedi admitted that he had played a full part, and a knowing part, in the planning and preparation for the Arena attack,” Paul Greaney, a lawyer for the public inquiry, said of an Oct. 22 jailhouse interview that the terrorist had with lawyers from the inquiry.

The confession was announced during an exchange with Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, the Manchester officer who led the investigation.

The senior officer said he had had “no doubt” that the brother played a key role, but the confession was welcome to victims and loved ones of those lost.

Although Abedi was overseas in Libya during the May 2017 attack, he was convicted in March of helping his brother plot and prepare his slaughter at the Manchester Arena, where seven of the dead were children as young as 8 years old.

“He has blood on his hands even if he didn’t detonate the bomb,” Max Hill, Britain’s director of public prosecutions, said at the trial.

Another 237 concertgoers were injured and 670 survivors reported suffering from psychological trauma. “No Tears Left to Cry” star Grande has also said she suffers post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abedi helped source, buy, stockpile and transport the components for his brother’s bomb, using a number of phones, vehicles and addresses in preparation for the attack, the trial had heard.

An inquiry into the attack is expected to last until spring.