Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Terror backer: Friend’s Arena bomb haunts me
He tells of ‘shock’ at Arena bomber Abedi
A TERRORIST told the Manchester Arena inquiry he is haunted by his friend Salman Abedi becoming a suicide bomber who killed 22 people.
Abdalraouf Abdallah, 28, said he was shocked when he learned his pal was behind the 2017 atrocity but insisted he played no part in grooming the 22-yearold into an extremist mindset.
The pair had exchanged over 1,000 messages including chats on martyrdom.
But Abdallah, a paraplegic injured fighting Colonel Gaddafi’s forces in the 2011 Libya uprising, said the martyrdom discussion had “nothing to do with extremism or terror” but was about friends who had died in conflict.
Telling of his reaction on hearing Abedi was the Arena bomber, he said: “It’s something I can never take out of my mind and it is haunting me because he is my friend.
“I have seen him twice after my conviction, in prison, and called him a couple of times but he only answered twice and that’s all I know.
“It’s still going in my head. Why? When? How come?”
Abdallah’s Libyan family fled Gaddafi’s murderous regime in the 1990s and got asylum in the UK where they moved to South Manchester, along with Abedi’s family who were also anti-gaddafi.
Abdallah was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of preparing and funding terror by helping four men from Manchester travel to Syria where three fought for Islamic State.
His phone was seized and analysis revealed the message exchanges with Abedi. Abdallah was jailed in 2016 but maintains his innocence and denies any involvement in or knowledge of the Manchester attack.
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “In those messages... were you grooming or seeking to groom [Abedi] into an extremist mindset?” Abdallah said: “No, I don’t even have an extreme mindset myself. My fight from the start was against Gaddafi and [Syrian president] Assad.”
Mr Greaney asked if the discussion played “at least a part” in Abedi’s radicalisation. Abdallah replied: “I didn’t play any part of radicalising.”
Inquiry chief Sir John Saunders asked: “Did you ever have any suspicion that he would become a suicide bomber?” Abdallah said: “No, no way. Not me or my friends or anyone...”
Asked about reports that Abedi wanted revenge over the UK’S role in Syria and Iraq, he said: “If I had seen the slightest of that thing myself... me and my boys will slap the hell out of him. If we had seen that side of him before we would have told his mum straight away.”
A radicalisation expert will give evidence later in the inquiry.
If we had seen that side of him we would have told his mum ABDALRAOUF ABDALLAH ABEDI’S PAL