(BBC) A Muslim preacher who was close to the Manchester bomber had been suspected by MI5 of radicalising people more than a decade earlier, the BBC can reveal.
A public inquiry into the atrocity will this week report on how Salman Abedi was radicalised, and whether security services missed chances to stop him.
The preacher, Mansour Al-Anezi, had been investigated before another close associate of his tried to carry out a suicide bombing in Exeter in 2008.
Al-Anezi died before the arena attack.
Twenty-two people died in the bombing at the Manchester Arena in May 2017 — at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. Secret hearings, which excluded victims’ families, discussed evidence from MI5 about Abedi and associates who were known to the security service.
