Friend of Manchester Arena bomber refuses to work with inquiry
A jailed UK terrorist and close friend of the Manchester Arena bomber has refused to to cooperate with the public inquiry.
Abdalraouf Abdallah is refusing to speak to lawyers for the inquiry about his links with the arena suicide bomber, Salman Abedi.
Abdallah, 27, who was left paralysed after being shot while fighting against the Gaddafi regime in the 2011 uprising in Libya, was jailed for more than five years for trying to help people travel to Syria to join jihadists.
Abedi visited him in prison twice and the pair were in regular telephone contact discussing martyrdom, the inquiry was told.
Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, said: “We have no doubt he is a witness with important evidence to give. We hope on reflection he will cooperate, so will press for him to give evidence before the inquiry.”
Greaney said Abedi’s parents in Libya were also refusing to cooperate with the inquiry, along with the bomber’s older brother, Ismail Abedi, who lives in the UK, citing legal privilege against incriminating themselves.
“This is most unhelpful and we hope Salman Abedi’s family will reflect and understand they have a moral obligation to provide the information we require,” Greaney said.
The inquiry also heard about Abedi’s connection to the radical preacher Mansoor al-Anezi. It emerged that Abedi had comforted Anezi, who had cancer, on his deathbed in January 2017 and missed a planned prison visit with Abdallah to attend Anezi’s funeral. Subsequently, property belonging to Anezi was found at the Abedi home in south Manchester.
Anezi was a close associate of Nicky Reilly, who launched a failed bombing attempt in Exeter in 2008. Reilly was subsequently jailed and died in prison on October 2016.
Earlier in the day, Greaney became emotional as he read out detailed accounts of how the 22 victims had died and revealed that at least one of the victims, John Atkinson, a care worker, would have survived had he been given the urgent medical attention he required.
Atkinson, 28, lay dying for almost an hour before he was evacuated from the building and given professional medical attention. He died after suffering significant blood loss due to an injury to his leg and abdomen.
He was within six metres of Abedi when the killer detonated his device. Atkinson was thrown to the ground but managed to drag himself away towards an exit.
As he lay bleeding on the floor, a member of the public, Ronald Blake, tried to help him and applied a tourniquet to his leg. The inquiry previously
heard a desperate 999 call made by Blake seconds after the attack.
Blake, who had been at the venue to pick up his daughter, remained with Atkinson for almost an hour and many people interacted with the two men as they remained on the floor.
Eventually, Atkinson was taken on a makeshift stretcher, an advertising board, by a number of people to a triage area of Victoria station and he remained there for another 24 minutes. Chest compressions only started on him one hour and 15 minutes after he was first injured.
Blast wave experts were instructed to examine the deaths of all 22 victims. They concluded that Atkinson’s severe leg and abdominal injuries were “potentially survivable”. Naomi Carter, a pathologist, cast doubt on the conclusion, saying a pre-existing heart condition may have contributed to his death.
However, Dr Paul Rees, an independent cardiology expert charged to look into Atkinson’s case by the inquiry, agreed that he would have survived.
Greaney described the surgeon’s conclusions as “stark” and it was finally concluded that Atkinson’s heart condition had not contributed to his death.
The injuries of all the other victims were categorised as “unsurvivable”. However, Greaney said the case of one of these victims, who remains anonymous, was now being re-examined after a request from the family.