Manchester Arena and Parsons Green terrorists refuse to attend court

District Judge Tan Ikram said Hashem Abedi and Ahmed Hassan may be ‘forced’ to attend court on Thursday.
Westminster Magistrates' Court
PA Archive
Ryan Hooper7 April 2021

Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi and Parsons Green Tube bomber Ahmed Hassan have been told they may be “forced” to attend court after refusing to leave their jail cells to face a charge of attacking a prison officer.

Abedi, 23, and Hassan, 21, are accused alongside another suspect, Muhammed Saeed, 23, of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Paul Edwards at HMP Belmarsh on May 11 last year.

But neither Abedi nor Hassan appeared via video link from the category A HMP Frankland in County Durham for the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning.

Manchester Arena Inquiry
PA Media

Asked by District Judge Tan Ikram whether Abedi and Hassan were “refusing to attend” the hearing, an unnamed Frankland prison officer replied: “They’re refusing to come down to this location, they are in their cells on the wings.”

He added: “They’ve not made any formal representation, they just insisted they’re not going to attend in any shape or form, sir.”

The district judge relisted the hearing for Thursday, the day Abedi turns 24, for pleas to be heard, unless the matter gets moved straight to the crown court at a later date, at the request of the prosecution.

He told the prison officer: “I’m not sure if you will get the opportunity to speak to the two defendants.

They (Abedi and Hassan) are advised to attend - one of the powers the court has is the use of force

District Judge Tam Ikram

“But if you are (speaking to them), they are advised to attend – one of the powers the court has is the use of force.”

Saeed, originally from Old Trafford in Manchester and currently awaiting sentence for another matter, appeared via video link from the category A HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire wearing a red jumper.

He spoke to confirm his identity and to enter a not guilty plea. He was further remanded in court until May 5.

Outlining the case, prosecutor Nicholas Alexander alleged the three defendants were out of their cells on May 11 last year when they entered an office and assaulted Mr Edwards as he sat at a desk.

Mr Edwards received cuts to his head and bruising, and was also kicked.

He has ongoing hearing problems as a result of the attack, the court heard.

The district judge provisionally relisted the hearing for Abedi and Hassan to be produced, again via video link, on Thursday, unless the prosecution elects to “circumvent” the hearing.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in