The terrorist friend of the Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi who played an important role in his radicalisation has been freed from prison amid calls for him to be deported
Abdalraouf Abdallah was jailed in 2016 after being found guilty of preparing and funding acts of terrorism, as well as helping fellow Jihadis get to Syria to join ISIS. and had allegedly exchanged over 1,000 text messages with Abedi who visited Abdallah in prison, including the day in January 2017 when he began amassing chemicals for his bomb.
His prison officer, psychologist and parole officer said he was “high risk”, “engaging with extremism” and intended to “commit terrorist-related offending”.
The Arena bombing inquiry Tsaid there was “no evidence that he was involved in the attack itself or had any pre-knowledge of it”, and Abdallah has always denied any role.
Sir John Mitting, the inquiry chairman, concluded that contact between him and the bomber in 2016 and 2017 “made a significant contribution to consolidating Salman Abedi’s ideology as he was contemplating the attack, and stiffened his resolve to carry out the atrocity”.
