A man accused of aiding the Manchester suicide bomber in his deadly quest deceived his cousins into buying bomb-making ingredients on the same day his brother was visiting a convicted terrorist in prison, a court has heard.
Hashem Abedi, is suspected of helping to mastermind the Manchester Arena bombing of 22 May 2017 with his brother, Salman, who died when his suicide vest exploded killing 22 other people. Abedi allegedly sourced the explosives, helped raised funds for the attack and arranged logistics.
During the sixth day of the trial his relatives were the first to take to the stand. His uncle Adel Forjani told how the Abedi siblings had become increasingly radicalised in the months leading up to the Manchester bombing.
During the hearing it emerged that on the same day, in January 2017, when Hashem Abedi allegedly duped Forjani’s son, Alharth, into buying bomb-making components his brother, Salman, was visiting an Isis recruiter in prison.
Adel Forjani, 49, told the Old Bailey that he saw both his nephews with the twice-convicted terrorist Abdal Raouf Abdallah in his barber shop, Fade Away in the Moss Side area of Manchester, on a number of occasions.
Under questioning from prosecutor, Duncan Penny QC, Forjani said his nephews had begun showing signs of radicalisation, changing their dress and attending a different mosque, before coming into his shop with Abdallah “once, maybe twice”.
Speaking via an interpreter, a concerned Forjani, said he told his sons that he did not want Abdallah in the shop and told them not to “mingle with him”.
“I saw him [Abdallah] quite a few times, he was with different people … yeah, I saw him once maybe or twice with my nephews in the shop, yes,” he added.
Abdallah, 26, who was left paralysed after being shot while fighting against the Gaddafi regime in the 2011 uprising in Libya, was jailed for more than five years for trying to help people travel to Syria to join jihadists.
The jury was told the Abedis were both seen with Abdallah, a local resident and regular visitor to the barber shop. However, later under questioning from defence barrister Stephen Kamlish, Forjani said Abdallah was friendlier with Salman and he was unsure how many times he had seen him with his nephews.
Forjani said his nephews’ behaviour began to change shortly after they started to attend a new mosque in Whalley Range. The brothers’ behaviour was of such concern to the local community that their parents took them back to Libya in April 2017 – a month before the attack.
“It was strange things – both of them began wearing more traditional clothing … someone must have told them [Abedi’s parents] that they were being radicalised,” said Forjani, who came to the UK as a refugee in 1994 with his wife, Leila Tabbal, the maternal aunt of the Abedi brothers.
Following the bombing the couple’s home in Fallowfield and barber shop were raided and both their sons, who are of similar ages to the Abedi brothers, were arrested but later released without charge.
His son Alharth, now 21, told how he bought chemicals commonly used in explosives for Abedi, on 18 January 2017.
Abedi said he needed to buy acid for a car battery and used Forjani’s Amazon account to buy one litre of sulphuric acid. Forjani said he did not suspect anything untoward and handed Abedi his iPhone to make the purchase.
However, after making the purchase he made a number of searches for sulphuric acid on his phone.
Asked by Penny to explain these searches, he replied: “I had a bad feeling. I just thought it might be to make explosives … I think that he believes in terrorism, that’s what I thought.”
That same day at just before 6pm Salman along with two other men, travelled from his home in Fallowfield, south Manchester, to visit the now imprisoned Abdallah, at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool.
During the hearing the prosecution also alleged that the brothers’ family were claiming thousands of pounds a month in benefits, with some of it being used in the bomb plot.
Mother of six Samia Abedi continued to receive more than £2,000 each month in welfare payments, even after leaving the country for Libya.
In the months following her departure in October 2016, benefits continued to be paid and in the run-up to the attack her bank account was accessed to buy a large industrial-sized battery and other bomb-making equipment from B&Q, the court was told.
The jury was shown Samia Abedi’s bank statements detailing monthly income payments of more than £2,000 in housing benefit, working and child tax credit and child benefit.
However, Samia Abedi, in her 50s, appeared to have left the country in October 2016, taking her three youngest children, Jomana, Wesel and Othman, with her, the court heard.
A bank card connected to her account was used in the UK to withdraw thousands of pounds in cash and to buy a 200-amp battery from Shield Batteries in Salford and payment to B&Q for tools, allegedly to construct the improvised explosive device.
Abedi denies the murder of 22 people aged between eight and 51, as well as attempted murder and conspiring with his brother to cause explosions.
The trial continues.
