Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi was close pals with convicted ISIS recruiter and STILL slipped through the net

MANCHESTER bomber Salman Abedi slipped through MI5’s net despite being close pals with a convicted ISIS recruiter AND his jihadi fanatic brother.

Abedi, 22, was on a “long list” of 20,000 “former suspects” not actively monitored by cops and spooks when he blew up 22 innocents in the atrocity in May.

But his close ties to a notorious Manchester network - including a host of British ISIS fighters well known to security officials - can now be laid bare following the Old Bailey conviction of one of the ring yesterday.

It can also now be revealed the same group was linked to a shadowy terror fixer in Belgium, known only as “Obaida”, who was closely linked to the attacks in Brussels and Paris.

Yet Abedi remained off officials’ radar as he secretly plotted his “spectacular” Manchester Arena atrocity.

He visited convicted ISIS recruiter Abdalraouf Abdallah in prison twice in the weeks leading up to the attack - yet still the alarm was not raised.

Just days after the bombing, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins played down Abedi’s terror links and insisted he was only known only to cops as a minor thief and not for extremism.

The intelligence blunder sparks fears about how many other associates of known radicals are also able to live at large and plan attacks in plain sight of cops and spooks.

Details of Abedi’s disturbing connections emerged after the terror conviction yesterday of Algerian-born Brit Mohammed Abdallah, now 26.

The fanatic came to the UK for NHS treatment for his wheelchair-bound terror guru brother after he was left paralysed when he was shot during the 2011 Libyan uprising.

He repaid the kindness of the British taxpayer by setting up a ‘communications hub’ for Muslim extremists.

Abdallah was found guilty of being a member of ISIS, possessing a firearm for terrorism having £2,000 for terrorist purposes.

Mrs Justice McGowan adjourned sentence until Friday.

It came just a year after Abdallah’s disabled younger brother, Abdalraouf, 24, was also jailed for terror offences.

The pair were extremely close to Abedi’s family.

The bomber’s father, Ramadan, cared for Abdalraouf in Libya after he was shot while fighting against dictator Colonel Gadaffi.

And Abedi, a Libyan national, lived less than a mile away from the Abdallah brothers when all three lived in Manchester in recent years.

Abdalraouf played a key role in helping his older brother travel to Syria with fellow Manchester fanatics, Raymond Matimba, 28, and Stephen Gray, 34.

Other notorious jihadists linked to the Manchester cell included Nezar Khalifa, 27, and Raphael Hostey, 24.

The court heard Abdalraouf was “a man wholly committed to terrorist purposes” who masterminded his brother’s journey to Syria, alongside Gray, Khalifa and Matimba, in July 2014.

In May 2016 Abdalraouf was jailed for five-and-a-half years for terrorism offences - only four months before Mohammed returned to the UK from Syria and was arrested.

And in January and March this year - weeks before the Manchester bombing - Abedi visited his close friend Abdalraouf in Liverpool’s privately-run Altcourse prison without anyone flagging the trips.

During Mohammed Abdallah’s recent trial, the court was told a Belgian called “Obaida” had helped the group move freely through Europe on route to Syria.

Obaida is suspected of playing a key role in the terror cells behind the Paris attacks in November 2015 and in Brussels in March 2016.

A review of MI5 and police handling of the four major terror attacks on UK soil this year was published earlier this week by ex-terror laws watchdog David Anderson and found that MI5 missed opportunies to nab Manchester monster Abedi.

It recommended better systems to monitor suspects like Abedi.
Last night sources close to the investigation said Abedi’s monitoring was seen as “proportionate” at the time.