Forensic scientist Paul Ryder explained to a jury at the Old Bailey in London on Thursday, March 5, how the fingerprints of Hashem Abedi and his brother Salman were found on pieces of tin from a catering drum of vegetable oil found at the family home in Fallowfield, Manchester.
Duncan Penny QC, prosecuting, has told the jury the 20-litre drum was cut up and used to make a prototype bomb in the weeks leading up to the explosion.
On 22 May 2017 Salman Abedi detonated a bomb in the foyer of the Manchester Arena, killing himself and 22 other people - including women and young children - and seriously injuring 92.
Hashem Abedi, 22, who worked as a delivery driver at a takeaway food shop, denies helping his brother to source triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosive used in the Manchester Arena bomb and manufacture an earlier “prototype.”
The trial has heard how the brothers hid the bomb components in a Nissan Micra car, then travelled to Libya - where their parents hail from - a month before the terrorist attack and Salman then returned alone and assembled the bomb which he hid in a rucksack and detonated moments after the concert ended.
The improvised explosive device (IED) - similar to those used by al-Qaeda* and Daesh* in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan - involved 3,000 pieces of shrapnel and was packed into a paint tin which was hidden in Salman Abedi’s rucksack.
Some of the 20-litre vegetable oil cans found at the Abedi family home. pic.twitter.com/idIBaSCjw4
— Duncan Gardham (@DuncanGardham) March 4, 2020
On Thursday the jury were shown detailed animated graphics showing the reconstructed vegetable oil drum, with Hashem Abedi’s fingerprints located on the outer and inner surface.
Mr Penny has told the jury one piece from the same oil drum was found in the debris at the Manchester Arena foyer after the explosion.
Earlier in the trial the Abedi brothers’ uncle, Adel Forjani, said the pair had become radicalised by Islamists and had “deceived” their family.
Court 2 at the Old Bailey was a tough place to be today... CCTV of Manchester Arena bomber just 19 seconds before blast shown to court https://t.co/sQcdzfvehe
— John Scheerhout (@johnscheerhout) February 25, 2020
Mr Forjani said Hashem even tricked his own son, Alharth, into buying components which were used in the bomb.
The trial also heard Salman Abedi had visited a man in prison who was known to recruit people for Daesh.
Mr Forjani said he had seen both brothers in his Manchester barber shop with Abdal Raouf Abdallah, who had been paralysed while fighting against the government of President Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and was later convicted in the UK of helping people travel to Syria to join Daesh.
'Prototype detonators' found at Granby House where the Manchester Arena bomb was constructed. pic.twitter.com/HsMBskHYlz
— Duncan Gardham (@DuncanGardham) March 4, 2020
Hashem Abedi denies 22 counts of murder, one charge of attempted murder and a charge of conspiring with his brother to cause an explosion.
The trial continues and is due to last for several more weeks.
*Al-Qaeda and Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL) are terrorist groups which are banned in Russia and many other countries.
