A friend of the Manchester Arena bomber imprisoned on terror charges is to be released on parole.
Abdalraouf Abdallah, who has “important evidence” about the background to the deadly attack, has refused to cooperate with the public inquiry into it, The Guardian reported.
He was visited by attacker Salman Abedi in jail in the months leading up to the arena bombing in which 22 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured.
Abedi visited him in prison twice and the pair were in regular telephone contact discussing martyrdom, the inquiry heard.
Abdallah was jailed in 2016 for more than five years for involvement in helping people join extremists in Syria. Despite his refusal to speak to lawyers for the inquiry about his links with Abedi, Abdallah will be released on parole.
He is claiming legal privilege by refusing to answer questions that may incriminate him, the hearing into the attack was told.
“We have no doubt he is a witness with important evidence to give. We are continuing to pursue this line of inquiry. We hope on reflection he will cooperate, so will press for him to give evidence before the inquiry,” Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, previously said.
“Salman Abedi’s relationship with Abdalraouf Abdallah was one of some significance in the period prior to the bombing and we are determined to get to the bottom of it,” Greaney added.
Abedi visited Abdallah in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison in February 2015 while he was on remand for terror offenses and in January 2017 at another prison in Liverpool.
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