Britain seeks extradition of Manchester terrorist's brother

British police said on Wednesday they had issued an arrest warrant for the brother of a suicide bomber who killed 22 people in an attack on a pop concert in Manchester in May and prosecutors had asked Libya to extradite him, Reuters reported.

Salman Abedi, a 22-year-old Briton born to Libyan parents, blew himself up at the end of a show by U.S. singer Ariana Grande. In addition to the 22 who were killed, more than 500 were wounded.

Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, who is responsible for counter-terrorism in northwest England, said police had now applied for and been granted an arrest warrant for Abedi’s younger brother Hashem for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion.

Shortly after the attack, Libya detained Hashem Abedi as well as his father, Ramadan Abedi.

“Hashem Abedi is currently detained in Libya and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has now requested that Libyan authorities consider his extradition back to the United Kingdom,” Jackson said Wednesday. “We are grateful for the Libyan authorities considering this request.”

He added that detectives had not found any evidence of the involvement of any wider network.

The Islamic State (ISIS) said it was responsible in the immediate aftermath of the bombing but security services have always treated the claim with skepticism, noted Reuters.

In the days after the attack, Britain arrested eight suspects ranging in age from 18 to 38 in connection with the bombing.

In June, the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), a counter-terrorism force aligned with the UN-backed government in Tripoli, said Hashem Abedi had told them that his brother had been radicalized in Britain in 2015.

They had both flown from Britain to Libya in April and Hashem said he had helped buy the equipment necessary for the attack although he had not known that Salman was planning a bombing, Rada said.

The Abedi family had emigrated to Britain during the rule of former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, moving from London to the Fallowfield area of south Manchester where they lived for more than a decade. The brothers’ parents returned to Libya during the country’s 2011 revolution.