According to reports, Salman Abedi’s parents are keeping a low profile in Libya, where they are under constant surveillance by Libyan authorities.
Ramadan Abedi, Samia Tabbal, and their son Samia Tabbal fled the UK for Libya four months before the suicide bombing that killed 22 and injured hundreds more.
Ramadan, who was later arrested by Libyan authorities and released in the wake of the attack, is still a suspect in the UK Police investigation.
Ramadan, a Libyan national, fought against Gaddafi’s regime with a militant group that was once considered a terrorist organisation by the US.
Yesterday, at the inquiry into the attack, a senior director general of MI5, said Islamist bomber Abedi was ‘likely’ to have been influenced in his views by his father.
Hashem Abedi is Salman’s brother and is currently in prison for his role in the terrorist attack on Ariana Grande’s concert. After being summoned to testify in the attack inquiry, his brother, Ismail, fled the UK.
Witness J, the security chief, told the inquiry that there had been missed opportunities to stop Salman at Manchester Airport just four days prior to the attack.
Ramadan Tabbal and Samia tabbal fled the UK to Libya four weeks prior to their son Salman’s 2017 suicide bombing attack that left 22 people dead and hundreds more injured. Ramadan (pictured right), was later arrested and released by Libyan authorities after the attack. Samia is still a suspect in the UK’s police investigation.
Hashem Abedi is Salman’s brother and is currently in prison for his role in the terrorist attack on Ariana Grande’s concert. After being summoned to testify in the attack inquiry, his brother, Ismail, fled the UK.
Who are the Abedi’s: The family that refuses to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of 22 innocent persons
Hashem Abedi
23-year old Hashem Abedi assisted his suicide bomber brother Salman in planning the attack on 22 innocent people at an Ariana Grande concert.
Hashem Abedi
He was a part of the construction of the bomb that his brother detonated during the concert.
Manchester-born Abedi was in Libya at the time of the explosion and was taken into custody and extradited to the UK.
Prior to the attack, the college drop-out, who worked as a takeaway driver, started asking the owner of the restaurant he was working for if he could take the metal vegetable oil cans away for scrap.
Salman and Hashem began using them to test homemade explosives that they were creating at their Manchester home on Elsmore Road.
After being convicted on 22 counts of murder, Hashem was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term 55 years.
He refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Ramandan Abedi
The father of the pair responsible for the Manchester Arena bombings is a Libyan-British national who fought against the Gaddafi regime in with militant group Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) – which was designated a terrorist organisation by the US, according to the Guardian.
Ramadan Abedi
He was detained in Libya with Hashem but was released on bail.
In Manchester, Ramadan, worked as a security officer, and was assigned the role of muezzin at Didsbury mosque and calling out prayer five times a day.
Ramadan returned to Libya in 2011 to fight for civil war, according to the Guardian.
Shortly before being arrested in Libya in 2017, he “condemned” terrorist attacks against civilians.
He lives in Libya, and has refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Samia Abedi
Samia Abedi is mother to the brothers involved in the Manchester Arena Bombing.
We know little about her past, except that she lived in south Manchester with Ramadan for over a decade and that all their children attended schools in the UK.
She is known to have left the UK in 2016, though continued to receive tax credits, child and housing benefit of about £550 a week, even though she left the UK for Libya in October 2016.
During Hashem’s trial it was revealed how her sons used her bank card before the 2017 attack to buy a battery.
Her bank statements showed a series of large cash withdrawals of between £50 and £300 each month in the UK after she left the country.
She is still living in Libya and has refused co-operation with the inquiry.
Joamana Abedi
Joamana Abedi is the sister of the Manchester Arena bombers, but little is known about her.
The 21-year-old suspect is known to be in Libya and has refused cooperation with the inquiry.
In 2017, she spoke out about the attack and described her brother as kind and loving. She also said that she was shocked by his actions.
She claimed that he may be responsible for the attack as he wanted revenge on the US air strikes on Syria.
Ismail Abedi
Ismail Abedi
Ismail Abedi, the eldest brother, was living in Manchester until recently.
He has previously apologized to his brothers for their actions.
In an interview with Sky News he said he had ‘no idea his brothers had taken this path’.
“I would like to apologize on behalf my family for the pain Hashem, Salman caused,” he said.
On his brother’s life sentence, Ismail, who has a wife and child, added: ‘I’m glad this has happened because I can put it all behind me, get on with my life and look after my family.’
He has refused to cooperate in the investigation into the attack. Officials declined to agree to a deal for him to be exempt from prosecution in exchange for his testimony at the inquiry. He had left the UK just days before he was called to testify at the inquiry.
The bomber was taken to Libya by his parents on April 2017, on a one-way ticket. He returned to the UK on May 18, 2017, four days before his attack.
Witness J agreed with Abedi that he should have been added to a ‘ports list’ to alert police when he returned home from Libya. He said that it would have been a better course of action.
“We relied on investigators for judgments about who should proceed to ports action. Since then, we’ve standardised the approach.
“I believe that this would have been an even stronger process if it had been introduced before then.”
Ramadan, despite denying any knowledge of the attack is a suspect in ongoing police investigations into the Manchester Arena bombing.
His fingerprints were discovered in a car his sons used for bomb-making and explosives storage. They have refused to cooperate in the investigation into the attack.
Ramadan lives with Samia at the family home near Tripoli, where he is currently married to Samia.
Najla, Libya’s foreign Minister, said to BBC that British authorities and Libya are in contact.
Ms El-Mangoush, a British citizen, said to the broadcaster that she believes there is collaboration between the general counsel office and some figures in England regarding this issue
“I’m not sure if there will be a positive outcome. We respect the judicial process and don’t want any interference. However, we are open to political collaboration if it is possible to do anything from our side.
Libya extradited Hashem in 2019. He was sentenced to a life sentence with a minimum of 55 years for the murders of 22 people while assisting his brother in the attack.
Witness J stated yesterday that Ramadan was likely to have influenced Salman’s extremist beliefs.
The MI5 officer also revealed the fact that security services knew Salman was connected to a serious criminal gang in the city before the attack.
Witness J asked Witness J about how MI5 was so close to reopening the investigation into Salman’s terrorist links.
The inquiry heard that Salman had planned to meet with the investigators nine days after the attack.
The evidence was presented behind a specially-made wooden screen to conceal the identity of the MI5 officer. It was heard during the ongoing inquiry into the terror attack.
The inquiry examines whether Salman’s probe should have been reopened in 2016 as a subject matter of interest, prior to the atrocity.
Officials have been trying to get evidence from family and friends about Salman’s past and how he became radicalised as part of the inquiry.
The hearing had previously heard that Salman’s brother Ismail Abedi fled the country after he received a notice requiring him to attend the inquiry.
He stated that he would only assist the inquiry if he was granted immunity from prosecution, a request which was denied. Hashem, their brother, was sentenced to life imprisonment for helping Salman execute the 2017 attack.
Witness J responded to the inquiry today, “Salman Abedi was probably informed by Ramadan Abedi” when he was asked about their father.
Witness J also stated to the inquiry that it was’reasonable not’ to reopen an investigation into Salman after receiving two pieces of intelligence about him in the months preceding the attack.
Officer stated that Salman was in touch with six different subjects of interest in the years prior to the attack.
Abedi was also identified by the senior officer as being a member of a serious crime gang in the area.
Abedi was an investigation subject of interest in 2014 and 2015, and a meeting to decide if he should reopen his case was only days away when he launched the attack.
The intelligence he received in the months preceding the attack was deemed to be ‘non terrorist activity’ or ‘non terrorist criminality’.
Paul Greaney, QC, was the inquiry’s lead. He stated that “in retrospect, this intelligence was highly relevant for the planned attack, however, the significance of its contents was not fully appreciated at that time.”
Witness J said that only fragments were available from the picture. We can see if it was relevant to the planned attack in our post-attack work.
When asked if he would make a similar assessment ‘not applying hindsight or judgment retrospectively’, he replied: ‘In our opinion it was a reasonable judgement to conclude that he was not associated to terrorist activities and that it was reasonable not to reopen that investigation on that basis.
The officer, one among three director generals gave evidence inside a specially-built wooden box that was attached to a Manchester Magistrates Court Courtroom. It was packed with victims’ families and lawyers.
He said earlier to the inquiry that Salman Abdi was part of a South Manchester group with links to a criminal gang.
The officer stated that when people are involved in terrorism or crime, some of their behavior and activity can be the same.
“It can sometimes be difficult to differentiate, for example, drug dealing and fraud from National Security Activity.”
Libya extradited Hashem (pictured) in 2019. He was sentenced to a life sentence with a minimum of 55 years for murdering 22 people while helping his brother during the attack.
The family home in Libya where Salman Abedi spent his last days plotting the Manchester terror attacks
Abedi’s phone number began to be accessed as a link to ‘Subject A’, who was suspected of planning a trip to Syria to join in the fighting.
He returned to the scene in 2015 after having met on a number occasions with ‘Subject matter B’, who was previously associated and being investigated for faciliting travel to Syria.
The final appearance was as an ‘associated’ subject of investigation, who had affiliations in Libya to a group called ‘Subject of interest C.’
Although they were believed to have had a radicalizing influence on Abedi, the second and third individuals are not believed to have known of his plans to attack.
The inquiry was told by Mr Greaney that the security service had concluded that only Salman Abedi (and Hashem Abedi) were ‘knowingly involved in the attack plot. His brother, who is currently in prison for helping to build the bomb, was the one assessing the intelligence picture.
Abedi was believed to have direct links to a senior ISIS figure from Libya in October 2015. The case was reopened as a subject of interest, but it was closed the day after it was discovered that the links were through a third party.
Abedi was identified by a ‘contactofa contact’ in April 2016, January 2017, April 2017 and April 2017. Abedi was identified with three subjects of interest: the first providing financial support for Syria, the second believed previously to have traveled to Syria, and the third allegedly aiding travel to Syria.
Salman Abedi, one of 687 subjects that were of interest on March 3, 2017, was one of the 687 subjects to hit a priority indicator for his case being re-opened under Operation Clematis. The indicator was based on information received a full year prior.
MI5 triaged Abedi’s case on May 1, three weeks prior to the attack and determined that it met the criteria to re-open. However, he was correctly believed to have been overseas, possibly in Libya.
Abedi was one 26 individuals referred by Operation Daffodil on May 8th to be investigated further at a ‘low-level’ level to determine if he had re-engaged in Islamist extremism.
The case was to be reviewed by the MI5 team on May 31st, nine day after the attack. But, Mr Greaney said that the meeting was ‘tragically overwhelmed by events’.
Witness J stated that Clematis was a relatively recent process to assess the risk of individuals not being investigated.
He added that too many closed subjects of interest would “potentially have an impact on priority investigations”.
The officer spoke out about how a report of the Joint Analysis and Terrorism Centre JTAC (a part MI5) in 2010 highlighted the “close proximity between violent extremeism and criminal bands in Manchester.
Sir John Saunders is the inquiry chairman and he has ruled there is ‘centrally significant material’ relevant for the question of whether MI5 could prevent the attacks. This information cannot be made public.
Salman Abedi was seen “adjusting wiring” under his clothes in the moments before the terror attack that claimed 22 lives on May 22, 2017.
22 people were killed in the terror attack on Manchester Arena, May 22, 2017. Many of these victims were children. Pictured: Armed police stand guard at the arena after the terror attack in 2017.
Manchester Arena was the victim of a terror attack that claimed 22 lives and left hundreds more injured.
Some hearings will therefore be held behind closed doors for the first time since 9/11.
In light of what was known to police and MI5 at the time, the inquiry examines whether Salman Abedi should be reopened as a subject-of-interest in 2016.
A second issue is whether Abedi should be reopened as a matter of interest in 2017. This is in response to two instances of information.
The last issue is whether Abedi should be on a 2017 ‘ports-action’ list, which would have alerted the police to his return from Libya four days prior to the attack
The inquiry continues.