Call for legislative change after Arena bomber's brother skipped the country

Legislation around crucial public inquiry witnesses could be strengthened to 'restrict their movements' after the elder brother of the Manchester Arena mass murderers skipped the country despite having 'highly relevant information to give'.

The Government and the Ministry of Justice is facing a call from Sir John Saunders, the chairman of the public inquiry into the bombing, to make a change to an Act of Parliament after the case of Ismail Abedi, who was found with 'a significant volume of extremist material' two years before the atrocity.

The elder brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi and now jailed Hashem Abedi, a warrant for Ismail Abedi's arrest remains in place after he was convicted in his absence of failing to comply with a legal requirement to attend the inquiry and give evidence.

READ MORE: The Arena bombing happened after the security services let us down. Why won't they tell us why?

Sir John said in his view, there should be 'statutory powers available to the High Court capable of applying short-term restrictions on the movements of a citizen who is a material witness to an inquiry', if there are fears they wouldn't co-operate.

He made a series of recommendations around the Inquiries Act 2005 in his third and final report arising from the inquiry, which found missed opportunities on the part of security service MI5 to stop the terror attack and delved into the circumstances behind the bomber's radicalisation.

An expert told the inquiry Ismail Abedi's 'influence' on his brothers was 'critical', and Sir John said he found 'his views did influence Salman Abedi's and Hashem Abedi's worldviews to a significant extent'. Sir John said it wasn't possible for him to secure the evidence 'of a person who had highly