Of the many soundbites that Sir Jim Ratcliffe has offered up publicly since his stake in Manchester United was confirmed earlier this year, claims of seeking to acquire the next Kylian Mbappe are certainly up there with the most interesting.
14.03.2024 - 07:15 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A convicted terrorist who helped radicalise Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi could be freed from jail within weeks. Abdalraouf Abdallah, who was jailed for nine and a half years in 2016 for helping people going to Syria to join the Islamic State group, was a childhood friend of Abedi in south Manchester.
Last year the public inquiry into the Arena bombing found that Abdallah had a 'significant relationship' with Abedi and played an 'important role in radicalising' him. Now Abdallah, 30, has been granted a new parole hearing to be held in private next month.
If successful he could be released on licence soon afterwards. The BBC applied to have the hearing heard in public, but the Parole Board rejected the application.
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Abdallah, from Moss Side, moved to the UK as a child and was paralysed from the waist down while fighting in Libya in 2011. He was arrested in November 2014 and charged with assisting others in committing acts of terrorism by facilitating travel and raising money to enable others to fight in the civil war in Syria.
In May 2016, he was convicted and sentenced to a nine-and-a-half-year extended determinate sentence. While in prison Abdallah is said to have used an 'illicit' mobile phone to attempt to call Abedi in early 2017 before the Arena bombing.
Abedi also visited Abdallah in prison in February 2015 while he was awaiting trial, and once again after he was jailed in January 2017, four months before the Arena attack. Abdallah has insisted he had nothing to do with the attack or radicalising the bomber.
Parole hearings are usually
Of the many soundbites that Sir Jim Ratcliffe has offered up publicly since his stake in Manchester United was confirmed earlier this year, claims of seeking to acquire the next Kylian Mbappe are certainly up there with the most interesting.
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