British police believe Hashem Abedi, 20, (pictured) conspired with his brother Salman to commit mass-murder in Manchester
Britain’s ‘FBI’ has agreed to train Libya’s security forces just three days after the north African state said it would extradite the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.
National Crime Agency officials will head to Libya, which is dominated by armed militia, under a deal signed off last week by British ambassador Frank Baker and Libya’s interior ministry.
British police hope to bring Hashem Abedi, 20, back to the country to stand trial on charges of murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion.
They believe he conspired with his brother, Salman, 22, to obtain equipment for the suicide bomb which killed 22 and injured 112 others at the Manchester Arena in May 2017.
Last night, a Foreign Office spokesman told The Mail on Sunday there was ‘not likely’ to be a connection between the training offer and extradition.
But Libyan sources said plans to extradite Abedi had been deadlocked for 18 months until the NCA deal was signed.
This picture of Hashem Abedi posing with an automatic weapon was posted on Facebook
Salman Abedi, 22, killed himself and 22 others, half of them children, at the Manchester Arena on May 20, 2017
This month Parliament heard damning evidence that security services moved ‘too slowly’ to establish the threat presented by Salman Abedi in the runup to the horror in Manchester (pictured above)
Last week, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee heard how MI5 admitted it had ‘moved too slowly’ to establish how dangerous Salman Abedi was and to monitor him in the days leading up to the bombing.
The brothers, who were born in Manchester, had spent time in Libya before the blast, with Salman returning alone.
Hashem was arrested at his parents’ home in Tripoli a day after the attack.
A spokesman for RADA, the militia group holding Hashem Abedi, said: ‘The Attorney-General says we must hand him over. We are no longer against that idea. We do not know when he will leave Libya.’