A Muslim preacher close to the Manchester Arena attack was suspected by MI5 of radicalizing people more than a decade before the attack.
The preacher, Mansour Al-Anezi, had been investigated before another close associate of his attempted a suicide bombing in Exeter, Devon in 2008, according to a BBC investigation.
It comes as a public inquiry into the attack this week will report on how Manchester bomber Salman Abedi radicalized and whether security services missed opportunities to stop him.
But the BBC has revealed evidence excluded from previous public hearings showing that Al-Anezi was being investigated by MI5 as a ‘suspected radicalisation’ before the attempted attack in Exeter.
The pastor, Mansour Al-Anezi (pictured), had been investigated before another close associate of his attempted a suicide bombing in Exeter, Devon in 2008, according to a BBC investigation
It comes as a public inquiry into the attack this week will report on how Manchester bomber Salman Abedi (pictured) was radicalized and whether security services missed opportunities to stop him
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, the officer leading the Manchester Investigation, told the inquiry that the relationship between Al-Anezi and Salman Abedi was “clearly a connection of significance.”
The inquiry also heard that Al-Anzei had been arrested in connection with the 2008 Exeter attack, but had not previously been told, according to the BBC, that he had been investigated by MI5 as a ‘suspected radicalisation’.
AI-Anezi, who died in 2017, moved from Kuwait to Manchester at the age of 43, before moving to Plymouth, Devon.
MI5 alerted investigators to Al-Anezi when he moved to Plymouth and he was monitored at the mosque where he preached, collecting information about his activities.
But it was only after Muslim convert Nicky Reilly, then aged 22, attacked a restaurant in Exeter with three bombs that Al-Anezi came under active police suspicion.
Detectives didn’t have enough evidence to prove he was behind the attack, but he was subject to further investigation.
Al-Anezi visited Manchester and ‘at some point’ became close to Salman Abedi, while he was staying at his childhood home.
A source told the BBC that Salman Abedi was “in tears” as he lay by his Al-Anezi bedside when he died in a Plymouth hospital in 2017.
He also had telephone contact with the terrorist’s brother, Hashem Abedi, who helped plan the attack.
Both brothers attended Al-Anezi’s funeral in Manchester and the next day bought chemicals used to make the explosives used in the May 22, 2017 arena attack.
A source told the BBC that Salman Abedi (pictured) was ‘in tears’ as he lay by his Al-Anezi bedside as he died in a Plymouth hospital in 2017
Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, the officer leading the Manchester Investigation, told the inquiry that the relationship between Al-Anezi and Salman Abedi (pictured) was “clearly a connection of significance.”
A group of five bereaved families told the BBC they were “disappointed to learn of further links to terrorism in Abedi’s background which appear not to have been investigated.”
The families are those of the victims Kelly Brewster, 32, of Sheffield, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, of Barra, Megan Hurley, 15, of Liverpool, and Liam Curry, 19, and Chloe Rutherford, 17, both of South Shields.
In a statement to the BBC, they said: ‘If there is enough information in the public domain for the press to make these links, then we would have expected the government to do the same and conduct a full investigation.
“We can only hope that this information was discussed in the private hearings of the public inquiry.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Our thoughts remain with those who died or whose lives were forever changed in the Manchester Arena attack.”
