(by Vanessa Tomassini - correspondent from Tunis) Ramadan Abedi, father of the Manchester Arena suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, arrested in Libya following the terrorist attack that killed 22 people during the Ariana Grande concert, is receiving medical assistance in Istanbul, Turkey. Abedi father was arrested in Libya with his youngest son, Hashem, in the wake of the 2017 bombing. While Hashem was successfully extradited to Britain for trial, the father of the bomber was released by the Special Deterrence Force, an Islamist militia affiliated to the Minister of Interior of the Tripoli government. Last week, Hashem, 22, was found guilty for helping his older brother, Salman, to kill 22 people and injure hundreds of others.
According to the Daily MailRamadan Abedi has regularly visited the Turkish capital to receive treatment and the Libyan government of national agreement is paying for his treatment having been a state dispendant. According to the British newspaper, UK police still want to speak to Ramadan Abedi. In fact, the father would have played a central role in the education of children and in their radicalization. It must be said that the Abedi family fled Libya and the government of Muammar Gaddafi in the 90s, but returned during the 2011 revolution, as did many other terrorists who now control the capital Tripoli. Abedi has also been accused of being a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which has been classified as a terrorist group by a number of countries. The members of this group - now dissolved - today fight against the Libyan national army (LNA) together with other terrorist organizations supported by the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey has become famous as a safe haven for controversial Libyan figures such as ex-LIFG chief Abdul Hakim Belhaj and Salah Badi, leader of the Misrata militia who was sanctioned by the United Nations for undermining Libya's political process. Many other Tripoli militia leaders find hospitality in Turkey after having stolen millions of dollars from the resources of the Libyan people with the complicity of state and international actors, including European think-thank and journalists who support them in the media. Recently, Turkey has also sent thousands of Syrian mercenaries to western Libya to fight against the Libyan armed forces under the command of General Khalifa Haftar. The latter launched an offensive last April to free western Libya from terrorist organizations and criminal gangs. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted to sending Turkish soldiers and weapons to Libya at the request of the Tripoli government despite the embargo on United Nations resolutions, following the signing of an agreement for military collaboration and defense. Although both sides have committed themselves to a humanitarian truce to respond to the coronavirus, the LNA has stepped up military operations with bombardments that have now reached the center of Tripoli.