The wider family of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi ‘holds significant responsibility’ for his radicalisation - while Manchester-based Islamic State ‘poster boys’ also encouraged him, the public inquiry into the atrocity has concluded.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Saunders blamed dad Ramadan Abedi, mother Samia Tabbal and brother Ismail Abedi for turning Salman Abedi and his accomplice brother Hashem into Islamic State fanatics prepared to kill children at a pop concert.
All ‘held extremist views’ and are believed to be in Libya. The pair were also inspired by ‘poster boys for Islamic State’, a report has said.
Some 22 people died and a thousand others were hurt when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a huge device in his backpack as mainly young concert-goers were leaving an Ariana Grande gig at the arena in May 2017.
Today (Thursday, March 2), in the third and final report of the public inquiry into the atrocity, chairman Sir John published findings on how Salman and Hashem Abedi were radicalised.
He concluded the Abedi family ‘holds significant responsibility for the radicalisation’ of the brothers.
“That includes their father Ramadan Abedi, mother Samia Tabbal and elder brother Ismail Abedi, each of whom has held extremist views. Their views influenced the development of [the brothers'] world views.”
Sir John went on that it was also likely that Salman and Hashem ‘fed off each other’s ideas and radicalised each other’.
Dad Ramadan took the sons to Libya when the north African country was torn apart by conflict and pictures revealed them shouldering arms.
It was ‘likely’ the brothers ‘were radicalised in Libya to some extent and that they obtained some form of training or assistance in how to build a bomb’ as well as learning ‘counter surveillance’.
The report also went on that Salman Abedi was ‘also influenced by his peer group’, naming convicted terrorist Abdalraouf Abdallah, from Moss Side, as a ‘key figure’. He was an Islamic State recruiter who became a hero figure in Islamist circles after he was seriously injured fighting in Libya.
The report said: “Abdalraouf Abdallah was seriously injured while fighting in Libya as a member of the February 17th Martyrs Brigade. He returned to Manchester with a hero status among impressionable young men from a Muslim background who were susceptible to Islamic State propaganda. Abdalraouf Abdallah has held extremist views and been convicted of terrorism offences. He had a significant relationship with [Salman Abedu] between 2014 and 2017 and had an important role in radicalising him.”
But the report dismissed as ‘no more than coincidence’ that Abdallah, while in jail, was involved in calls in January 2017 with Salman Abedi at the same time the latter was procuring chemicals for a bomb.
The inquiry has heard evidence from a prison officer who reported Abdallah had told him Salman Abedi had mentioned ‘killing people in a public space’, and that Abdallah has been shocked ‘one of my boys’ had carried out the arena attack.
Sir John said he believed the evidence of the prison officer.
“This indicates that Abdalraouf Abdallah was aware of the threat that [Salman Abedi] presented but was not aware that he had identified a specific target. I find that Abdalraouf Abdallah had an important role in radicalising [Salman Abedi]. I agree with the investigators… that he provided ‘ideological motivation and encouragement, rather than … a more practical hands-on assistance’.”
Sir John’s report also named Raphael Hostey, another Mancunian Islamic State recruiter killed in a drone strike in 2016. He was also a ‘key influence’.
It also named Ahmed Taghdi, a childhood friend of Salman Abedi whose father was killed in Libya in 2011.
Taghdi denied in his evidence to the inquiry that he had played a part in the radicalisation of Salman Abedi. He admitted he had visited Abdallah in prison with Abedi but this was just a ‘social visit’.
Sir John said: “Ahmed Taghdi denied holding extremist views. However, this was difficult to reconcile with his past behaviour. On 22nd March 2016, he wrote to a woman he followed on social media, criticising her for sympathising with the victims of the Brussels airport attack, an attack by violent Islamist extremists that had taken place that day.160 Images of fighters, weapons, artillery and military marches were found on Ahmed Taghdi’s electronic devices.
“Whatever his views now, I consider that Ahmed Taghdi has held extremist views at some point in the past. I also find that Ahmed Taghdi was part of a peer group around (Salman Abedi) that did nothing to dissuade [him] from descending into an increasingly extremist worldview. However, there was insufficient evidence to find that Ahmed Taghdi radicalised [Salman Abedi] or that he was a particular cause for (him) taking the final step from theoretical into operational violent Islamist extremism.”
Sir John said he agreed with the police conclusion that the brothers’ radicalisation ‘was not due to a single moment, event or person’, but he said he was satisfied that by 2016 the brothers had become ‘become thoroughly radicalised’ and were ‘entirely committed to violent action of some extreme kind’.
Sir John said: “The beliefs of Ramadan Abedi and his peers laid the foundations, but their focus was on their home country of Libya. It appears that the appearance of Islamic State, and particularly its declaration that it had established a caliphate in June 2014, was a major trigger for the radicalisation of not just [Salman Abedi] and [Hashem Abedi] but a wider group of young men. Figures such as Abdalraouf Abdallah and Raphael Hostey functioned as inspirations and ‘poster boys’ for Islamic State, encouraging people to travel to Syria to fight and providing active assistance to those wishing to do so.”
Sir John said it was also ‘inevitable’ the brothers had accessed extremist material online.
“This material would have fuelled their radicalisation by glorifying the actions of Islamic State. The material encouraged armed struggle and martyrdom. It focused anger and hatred on to western society. This material is likely to have been more impactful in the absence of responsible parents and given the lack of engagement with education or meaningful work.”
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