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. READ MORE: The Greater Manchester service 'best prepared in the UK' to deal with a terror attack READ MORE: Five things we learned about Andy Burnham from his new book Abdallah, from Moss Side, moved to the UK as a child and was paralysed from the waist down while fighting in Libya in 2011.
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