Abdalraouf Abdallah was born in Libya but moved to Manchester with his family when he was two months old. At 18, he began fighting during the uprising against Gaddafi’s regime
Abdalraouf Abdallah was said to be active in a Manchester terrorist group in 2014 and had hero status after he was hurt fighting in Libya.
He was born in the north African country but moved to Manchester with his family as a two month old. Abdallah made regular trips back to his homeland and aged 17 he moved there for a “gap year”.
The armed uprising against Colonel Gaddafi’s regime began and Abdallah, then 18, began fighting. He is said to have joined an extremist Islamist group. In 2010 he was shot in the back, leaving him paralysed from the waist down and a wheelchair user, and returned to Manchester via Tunisia and Berlin. He has been diagnosed with PTSD.
A court heard he organised terrorist activities and “provided practical and emotional support to its members”. It is claimed his role in the “conflict in Libya and the injury which he sustained there gave him something of a ‘hero’ status among impressionable young men from a Muslim background susceptible to Islamist propaganda”.
Police enquiries revealed in 2014 Abdallah exchanged over 1,000 texts with Salman Abedi, making “several references to martyrdom”. Experts concluded the messages showed Abdallah “was one of the major influences in the process of radicalising Abedi”.
While Abdallah was in prison after being jailed for terror offences, phone calls were made to Abedi on an illicit mobile phone. Abedi even visited him in jail. There is no suggestion Abdallah had any involvement in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack. He gave evidence at the inquiry in 2021.
The same year he told a prison officer “Abedi had talked about killing people in a public space, but he had not taken it seriously”. Abdallah, who denies radicalising anyone, said he was “very shocked when he discovered that one of his boys had carried out the bombing”.
