Manchester Arena bomb plotter in court on attempted murder charges

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi has appeared in court charged with attempting to murder prison officers at a maximum security jail.

The 28-year-old appeared via video link from HMP Belmarsh surrounded by five prison officers at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.

He is accused of three counts of attempted murder after four prison officers were injured following a suspected ambush at HMP Frankland in County Durham on April 12.

Abedi also faces one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of unauthorised possession of a knife or offensive weapon.

He was not required to enter pleas to the charges and will next appear at the Old Bailey on October 17.

Three prison officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries after they were allegedly attacked with hot oil and makeshift weapons in an ambush.

At the time of the incident, the Prison Officers Association said the staff sustained life-threatening injuries including burns, scalds and stab wounds in an “unprovoked” and “vicious” attack.

Abedi was convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot, in which his brother, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, killed 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack bomb among a crowd of concert-goers.

He was jailed for life with a record-breaking 55-year minimum term in August 2020.