23 times Abedi was on the radar
MANCHESTER bomber Salman Abedi was on the radar of MI5 and police 23 times before he killed 22 concert-goers in May 2017.
DECEMBER 2010: Abedi first comes to MI5’s attention seven years earlier, aged 15, when an address linked to him becomes relevant in an investigation. 2011: MI5 and counter-terror police are told Abedi may be going to Syria but conclude he had briefly gone to Europe.
NOVEMBER 2011: Ramadan Abedi, Salman’s father, subject to ports checks at Manchester airport and Dover on return from Libya. Once, Salman was with him.
DECEMBER 2013: Abedi mistakenly considered to be an individual seen alongside a ‘subject of interest’ under investigation for planning to join Isis in Syria.
MARCH 2014: Salman is made low-level MI5 ‘subject of interest’ for four months after contacting a suspect by phone.
JULY 2014: Then 19, Salman and younger brother Hashem, 17, travel to Libya but are evacuated on August 4 by HMS Enterprise, without any security debrief.
AUGUST 2014: Suspected Isis recruiter Abdalraouf Abdallah exchanged 1,300 messages with person called ‘Salman’. 2015: Abedi’s phone is linked to an Al Qaeda suspect under investigation for arranging travel to Syria. 2015: MI5 told about Abedi’s contact with Libyan-linked subject of interest.
FEBRUARY 2015: Abedi visited Abdallah on remand in London’s Belmarsh prison, prompting MI5 and police probes.
MAY 2015: MI5 considered investigating Salman and another individual. He was treated as an informal subject of interest involved in funding terrorism.
SEPTEMBER 2015: Salman’s older brother, Ismail Abedi, is stopped at Heathrow on return from Malaysian honeymoon. Radical material is found on his phone.
SEPTEMBER 2015: Salman and Hashem go on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, which friends call a ‘turning point’ for Hashem, who became a bomb-maker.
OCTOBER 2015: Abedi’s status as a subject of interest is reopened and closed within a day after MI5 found a link with ‘senior’ Libyan Isis figure – later clarified as being via a third person.
NOVEMBER 2015: Salman travels to Germany via Paris – days before Isis-inspired terror attack killed 130 people in the French capital. MI5 initially believed he was attempting to reach Syria, later discounted as unlikely.
APRIL 2016: Abedi revealed as ‘contact of a contact’ of an MI5 ‘subject’ suspected of funding an Isis fighter in Syria.
MAY 2016: Manchester airport informs police after Abedi is seen activating a boarding card for a flight to Istanbul – a well-known transit point to Syria – next to a suspicious individual.
EARLY 2017: Two pieces of intelligence received by MI5 about Abedi. He may have been thwarted if the intelligence was acted upon, inquiry concludes.
JANUARY 2017: Bomber appeared as a second-level contact of individual who was being investigated due to previous travel to Syria, and Isis links.
JANUARY 2017: He and two associates visit Abdallah in HMP Altcourse. MI5 are informed. That day, Abedi orders his first bomb-making chemicals.
MARCH 2017: Abedi flagged as a potential terrorist by a security services computer programme, following intelligence received in 2016.
APRIL 2017: Abedi is again flagged up as a second-level contact of a subject under investigation for links to a recruiter and facilitator for Isis in Libya.
MAY 2017: Salman Abedi is one of 26 individuals considered for further ‘lowlevel’ investigations by MI5, with a meeting scheduled for May 31 to discuss his case. He detonates bomb on May 22.