Manchester Arena and Parsons Green bombers deny Belmarsh guard attack

Hashem Abedi (left) and Ahmed Hassan (right) have denied assualt occasioning actual bodily harm
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The terrorists behind the Manchester Arena and Parsons Green bombings today denied assaulting a Belmarsh prison guard when they had been temporarily let out of their cells.

Hashem Abedi, 24, and Ahmed Hassan, 21, are accused with 22-year-old Muhammed Saeed of attacking Paul Edwards at the high-security prison on May 11 last year.

Abedi, whose birthday it is today, and Iraqi asylum seeker Hassan were both absent from court yesterday as Saeed appeared via videolink for a hearing at Westminster magistrates court, entering a not guilty plea to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Today, both Abedi and Hassan appeared before Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring via videolink from Frankland Prison in County Durham, also entering not guilty pleas to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Abedi, whose hair has grown out extensively while in custody, also denied assaulting a second prison officer in the same incident.

Judge Goldspring sent the cases of Abedi and Hassan to Woolwich crown court, to be joined to Saeed’s in a hearing on May 5.

All three men remain in custody.

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