The brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, who is accused of helping to plan the terrorism attack, will not give evidence at his own trial.
Hashem Abedi, 22, is accused of helping to plan the May 2017 attack and helping to build the suicide bomb that his brother, Salman, detonated at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.
After the prosecution concluded its case on Tuesday, the Old Bailey heard that Abedi would not be taking the stand, meaning the defence case was closed. Abedi denies the murder of 22 people aged between eight and 51, as well as attempted murder and conspiring with his brother to cause explosions.
He had not attended the hearing during the concluding days of the prosecution case, although his barrister said he was not able to definitively conclude the reason for his absence. The jury heard Abedi was in the building but had decided not to present himself in the courtroom.
The judge, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker, asked Abedi’s defence team whether the defendant had been given advice about testifying in his trial and whether it had been explained to him that his refusal to do so may lead the jury to make certain conclusions.
“Have you advised your client, Mr Abedi, the stage has now been reached where he may give evidence and if he chooses not to do so or, having been sworn, refuses to answer any questions, the jury may draw inferences that are appropriate for his failure to do so?” he said.
The defence barrister, Stephen Kamlish QC, confirmed he had spoken with his client about giving evidence but Abedi had chosen not to do so.
The judge then confirmed that the prosecution and defence cases were closed.
“Members of the jury, you will appreciate that that’s all the evidence you are going to hear in this trial, there will be no further evidence and its on that evidence in due course you will be asked to reach your verdicts in this case,” he said.
“However before that stage comes, I’m going to have to sum the case up to you and that will involve giving you some legal directions, some guidance on some evidential matters you have heard during the course of the trial, a reminder of relevant factors.”
Earlier in the day the jury heard that an email address containing the phrase “to slaughter we have come”, allegedly used to buy chemicals for the attack, was a widely known slogan among jihadi militants in north Africa.
Handwritten scraps of paper bearing the email address bedab7jeana@gmail.com were found in a bin at the family home of the Abedi brothers after the bombing. The email address was provided to Amazon for the purchase of 30 litres of hydrogen peroxide, a key ingredient for the bomb.
The junior prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward described how the Arabic expression contained within the email address had become a widely used slogan among fundamentalists.
She said Katibat al-Battar al-Libi, an armed group operating in Syria, chose it as its slogan when it formed in 2012. The group was made up predominantly of Libyans but also others from north Africa, she said.
The siblings allegedly used a network of unsuspecting family and friends in the Libyan community to buy ingredients for the explosive.
The trial continues.
