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MI5 knew Salman Abedi had supported ISIS before he launched the Manchester Arena attack that killed 22 people, documents have revealed.
Abedi, who was 22 when he carried out the mass murder, spoke about the violence “so often” that it was not “taken seriously” and was dismissed as “hearsay” by people who knew him, the investigation said. the May 2017 attack.
Today, the public inquiry into the attack released a summary of evidence that had previously been heard in closed-door sessions on national security grounds, The Independent reports.
It read: “MI5 had intelligence that Salman Abedi was supportive of the Islamic State, but noted that there were a large number of people during this period who expressed such support that they did not pose a threat to UK national security.”
The summary added that there were “some inconsistencies in the intelligence about the extent to which he supported the goals of the Islamic State and what, if anything, he would do to achieve his goals through his actions.”
The news comes after the inquest heard that police found Salman Abedi’s name, photo and phone number during a counter-terrorism investigation years before he carried out the Manchester Arena bombing.
But the information was not highlighted to a counterterrorism surveillance intelligence unit as it should have been, a retired detective said at the hearing.
Investigation
Frank Morris, a former senior investigative officer with the North West Counter Terrorism Police came across intelligence conducting an investigation called Operation Oliban in 2014 into another Manchester terrorist, Abdalraouf Abdallah, who was a friend of the Salman arena attacker. Abedi.
Abdallah was convicted and jailed for terrorism in 2016 after being at the center of a ring that helped British Muslim men go to Syria or Libya to fight jihad.
During the police investigation, it was discovered that a person named ‘Salman’ exchanged around 1,300 mobile phone text messages with Abdallah in the span of a month in November 2014.
The couple shared an ‘extremist and Islamist mentality’, the hearing was told, with Abedi telling his friend: ‘By Allah…every day, every time I kneel, I ask my Lord for martyrdom. ‘.
He also described non-Muslims as ‘dogs’ and ‘Khuffars’ and shared an image of the currency used by the so-called Islamic State in Syria, ‘not under the control of the West’.
Abedi had also sent two photos of himself, his phone number was available and he had given his full name in text exchanges, all available to police.
Mr Morris, a former detective inspector
Morris, a former detective inspector, admitted this didn’t happen, but it should have.
Sir John Saunders said that if police had linked Salman’s phone number to his identity, this information could have “informed future decisions”.
Twice in the months before the attack, MI5 received intelligence on Abedi, but at the time it was assessed that he was linked to a possible non-terrorist offence.
In hindsight, this intelligence was highly relevant to the planned attack, but the importance of it was not fully appreciated at the time, the investigation has heard.
Today, a prison officer, only referred to as ‘PO1’ for legal reasons, revealed that he had a conversation with convicted terrorist recruiter Abdalraouf Abdallah in his prison cell on December 1 last year, shortly after for Abdallah to speak in the investigation.
