A convicted terrorist, who has refused to tell an inquiry about his contact with the Manchester Arena bomber, is to be released from jail on parole.
27-year-old Abdalraouf Abdallah, was jailed in 2016 after being found guilty of helping people travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. The Manchester Arena Inquiry heard he was in touch with bomber Salman Abedi in the months leading up to the attack.
Abdallah is a "witness with important evidence to give" but has refused to answer any questions in case he incriminated himself. When released, he will spend a further four years on licence. He moved to the UK as a child and grew up in south Manchester, and was paralysed from the waist down while fighting in the Libyan revolution of 2011.
His trial heard that, from his wheelchair and mainly using a mobile phone, Abdallah arranged for the movement of money and fighters to Syria.
When he was sentenced, the judge said "there was no evidence of indoctrinating of others". Abdallah was considered to be a radicalising influence on Salman Abedi. Abedi reportedly visited Abdallah in prison and spoke to him on an illegally held mobile phone during the period in early 2017 when the bomb was being prepared.
However, the Arena inquiry has heard that when Abdallah had been arrested in 2014, his phone contained correspondence with Abedi about suicide, martyrdom - including the death of a senior al-Qaeda figure - and "maidens of paradise".
The prison authorities confiscated Abdallah's phone before the attack and - when analysed - it was found to have been used to make calls and attempted calls to Abedi's number.
That a man jailed for terrorist organising via a phone was able to obtain a mobile in prison, which he used to speak to a known extremist like Abedi, is a focus for the inquiry.
