Manchester Arena households in ‘disbelief’ that ‘evil’ Hashem Abedi was in a position to assault jail officers | EUROtoday

The households of 5 individuals murdered by Hashem Abedi within the Manchester Arena bombing say they’re in “disbelief” he was in a position to assault jail officers in HMP Frankland.

Abedi, who was in a high-security unit, attacked three jail officers on Saturday by throwing sizzling oil at them and stabbing them with makeshift weapons, POA, the jail officers union mentioned.

Now, the bombing victims’ households have expressed outrage that Abedi “has been allowed to cause danger to life” in a letter to justice secretary Shabana Mahmood seen by the BBC.

Abedi, who had been a long-term inmate at HMP Frankland’s separation centre, was jailed for all times with a minimal sentence of 55 years for the murders of twenty-two individuals after serving to his brother perform the suicide bombing of an Ariana Grande live performance in 2017.

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He moved to the separation centre after finishing up an assault on jail officers in London’s MMP Belmarsh in 2020.

The households’ letter to Ms Mahmood says: “We are writing in absolute disbelief” that, as soon as once more, the “evil Hashem Abedi has been allowed to cause danger to life”.

“As the families of Megan Hurley, Eilidh Macleod, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Curry, and Kelly Brewster, our beautiful, beloved children who were so tragically murdered along with 16 others in the Manchester Arena terror attack in May 2017, we find this situation beyond comprehension.”

The households defined they understood jail would imply he was confined to a cell to 23 hours a day and served meal by means of a hatch and added that of their view he shouldn’t be allowed any privileges.

Abedi had entry to the kitchen in Frankland’s separation centre – one among solely two centres at the moment in use.

Following the assault, he was moved to the separation centre at HMP Full Sutton.

Inmates of separation centres – used to deal with a small variety of the UK’s most harmful inmates – have since been barred from utilizing kitchens.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) mentioned it can launch a full unbiased overview into how the assault was in a position to occur.

In response to the letter, it mentioned in a press release that their ideas stay with the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing and their households.

An MoJ spokesperson added in response to the kitchen ban: “The Government will do no matter it takes to maintain our hardworking employees secure, and our ideas stay with the 2 jail officers nonetheless in hospital as they get better.

“We’ve already taken immediate action to suspend access to kitchens in separation and close supervision centres.”

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer mentioned it was clear “something went terribly wrong” with how Abedi was dealt with.

His spokesman added: “The prime minister is appalled by the attack that we saw at the weekend and his thoughts are with the officers involved.

“Prison staff work around the clock to keep the country safe and we will never tolerate the violence that is targeted towards them.”

The assault comes after Mark Fairhurst, nationwide chairman of the POA, known as on the federal government to take away cooking amenities from separation centres.

He disagreed that offenders in these amenities ought to be given the identical privileges as regular location prisoners.