Manchester bomb plotter refuses to take part in deradicalisation plan
Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi refuses to take part in prison deradicalisation scheme while serving 55 years for helping his brother kill 22 concertgoers
- Hashem Abedi is one of five inmates in a separation centre at HMP Frankland
- He along with three others have turned down the opportunity to change ways
- Abedi admitted his involvement in planning the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people and was sentenced to a minimum of 55 years
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is refusing to co-operate with a prison deradicalisation programme while serving 55 years for helping his brother kill 22 concertgoers.
Abedi is one of five inmates in a separation centre at maximum security HMP Frankland in County Durham and he along with three others have turned down the opportunity to change their ways, reports ITV News.
The Ministry of Justice granted the broadcaster access to HMP Frankland and HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire to provide insight into how they attempt to deal with, house, categorise and deradicalise prisoners convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act.
Abedi, 23, is separated from the other prisoners amid concerns he could radicalise fellow inmates.
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is refusing to co-operate with a prison deradicalisation programme while serving 55 years for helping his brother kill 22 concertgoers
CCTV image of Salman Abedi arriving at Manchester Arena, on May 22, 2017, where he detonated his bomb
Richard Vipond, probation officer and prison offender manager at HMP Frankland, said: ‘One particular person I was working with, we opened his cell door and he said “I’m not going talk to you, you’re an enemy of Islam, you’re an Islamophobe, you’re my enemy”.
‘There are some people that are so entrenched in their views, in their ideologies and their beliefs that we just become a holding centre for them.’
Abedi and four others are being held at the Separation Centre and they can be heard discussing their naps and the use of a radio in the video footage.
Lucy Jarvis, who was injured in the Manchester Arena attack, told ITV News: ‘He doesn’t deserve any right to socialise with people, especially someone who is unfortunately on the same wavelength as him with these disgusting things.’
Last October, Abedi admitted for the first time his involvement in planning the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people.
Abedi is one of five inmates in a separation centre at maximum security HMP Frankland in County Durham. ITV footage shows inside a typical cell of the separation centre
Abedi and four others are being held at the Separation Centre and they can be heard discussing their naps and the use of a radio in the video footage
He made the admission at HMP Frankland when he was visited by two members of the Arena public inquiry’s legal team to be interviewed as part of the probe into the atrocity on May 22 2017.
The brother of suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, had denied 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life but was convicted by a jury of all the offences.
Last August he was handed 24 life sentences with a minimum term of 55 years before he can be considered for parole.
Abedi did not give evidence at his trial at the Old Bailey, absented himself from much of the proceedings and sacked his legal team.
He also refused to attend his sentencing hearing.
The 22 victims of the terror attack during the Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena in May 2017. (top row left to right) Off-duty police officer Elaine McIver, 43, Saffie Roussos, 8, Sorrell Leczkowski, 14, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, (second row left to right) Nell Jones, 14, Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, Megan Hurley, 15, Georgina Callander, 18, (third row left to right), Chloe Rutherford,17, Liam Curry, 19, Courtney Boyle, 19, and Philip Tron, 32, (fourth row left to right) John Atkinson, 26, Martyn Hett, 29, Kelly Brewster, 32, Angelika Klis, 39, (fifth row left to right) Marcin Klis, 42, Michelle Kiss, 45, Alison Howe, 45, and Lisa Lees, 43 (fifth row left to right) Wendy Fawell, 50 and Jane Tweddle, 51
The Abedi brothers, from Fallowfield in south Manchester, spent months ordering, stockpiling and transporting the deadly materials for the terror attack, using multiple mobile phones, addresses and runaround vehicles to make their bomb.
They joined their parents in Libya the month before the blast, but Salman returned to the UK on May 18.
He bought the final components needed for the bomb, rented a flat in the city centre in which to build it and carried out reconnaissance on the Arena before finally executing the plot as fans departed from an Ariana Grande concert.
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