A Muslim preacher who was close to the Manchester bomber had been suspected by MI5 of radicalising people more than a decade earlier, the BBC can reveal.
A public inquiry into the atrocity will this week report on how Salman Abedi was radicalised, and whether security services missed chances to stop him.
The preacher, Mansour Al-Anezi, had been investigated before another close associate of his tried to carry out a suicide bombing in Exeter in 2008.
Al-Anezi died before the arena attack.
Twenty two people died in the bombing at the Manchester Arena in May 2017 – at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. Secret hearings, which excluded victims’ families, discussed evidence from MI5 about Abedi and associates who were known to the security service.
A BBC investigation has identified information that did not appear in the public hearings – and might not have appeared in the closed sessions either.
Suicide bombings, both actual and attempted, are rare in the UK. In the past 15 years, the only two confirmed incidents were the Manchester and Exeter bombings.
Source: bbc.com
