A warrant for the arrest of the elder brother of the Manchester Arena bomber has been issued by a district judge. Ishmale Ben Romdhan, previously known as Ishmale Abedi, 29, was convicted in his absence last month of failing to comply with a legal notice requiring him to give evidence at the public inquiry into the bombing atrocity, which claimed 22 lives in May, 2017.
He fled the country despite being legally compelled to attend, to the disgust of victims' families. Romdhan was warned to attend today's hearing at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court in person, but did not.
An usher called out his name ahead of the hearing, but told District Judge Jack McGarva there was no response outside court. The judge said: "A notice of the hearing has been sent to him at his last known address warning him that if he does not attend a warrant will be issued for his arrest."
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Sophie Cartwright QC, counsel to the public inquiry, said a notice of the hearing was also sent by email to an email address Romdhan has previously used to correspond with the inquiry, as well as to his previous legal representatives.
The same court heard last month that Romdhan was 'determined' not to co-operate with the public inquiry into the atrocity 'from the first'
Nicholas de la Poer QC, prosecuting on behalf of the inquiry's chairman, Sir John Saunders, told a court: "He has prevaricated. He has obfuscated. "He has thrown up every obstacle he could think of. And when those failed, he fled the jurisdiction. In the end it comes down to this. He was lawfully required to attend, he did not attend and there is no good reason for him not attending."
Romdhan flew out of the UK in August last year - he was due to give evidence to the inquiry in the October. A lawyer acting for the bereaved families told the inquiry in the aftermath he had effectively 'been able to flee then laugh in the face of the inquiry'.
He was 'required' to appear before the chairman after a 'Section 21' notice was issued. Section 21 of the Inquiries Act allows the chair of an inquiry to require a person to give evidence. Section 35 of the Inquiries Act states a person is guilty of an offence if he or she fails without reasonable excuse to do anything that he or she is required to do by a notice under Section 21.
A failure to comply with a section 21 notice carries a maximum penalty of 51 weeks imprisonment. Romdhan - whose DNA was found on an item in a Nissan Micra car used by bomber Salman Abedi and his brother, Hashem Abedi, to store explosives they manufactured for the bomb - was 'port-stopped' by Greater Manchester Police at Manchester Airport on August 28 last year, where he told police officers he was only leaving the country for three weeks.
But he was released and managed to board a flight to Istanbul the next day. It is believed his family has followed, but his current whereabouts are unknown. District Judge McGarva found him guilty in his absence after a trial last month, but Romdhan, who didn't attend that hearing either, wasn't sentenced.
The judge said today that he would be returned to the court to be sentenced by him should the arrest warrant ever be executed. He said: "I am satisfied that he is aware of this hearing.
"The proceedings have had a great deal of publicity. I am sure he will have followed what has happened here in this court. I am now able to issue a warrant for his arrest without bail. We will just have to wait for him now to be apprehended."
Oral evidence at the inquiry came to an end in March this year after 196 days. Chairman Sir John is expected to publish his second report, focusing on the response of the emergency services to the attack, in November. The third and final report, considering whether the security services and counter-terrorism police could, and should, have prevented the bombing, and the radicalisation of the suicide bomber, will follow.
Salman Abedi, 22, detonated a device in a rucksack as crowds left an Ariana Grande concert at the venue. Sixty three people were also seriously injured, with 111 hospitalised. His brother Hashem Abedi, 24, was jailed for life for the 22 murders by assisting the bomb plot.
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