The report was published by The Telegraph yesterday. According to the report, Abedi received about £14,000 pounds (approx. $18,000 US) over a two-year-period leading up to the attack at the Manchester Arena on May 22. The bombing resulted in the deaths of 22 people and injured 119 others.
Part of the police investigation is focusing on the 22-year-old’s finances. Investigators are tracing the source of the funds Abedi used to finance the attack. According to friends, Abedi never had a job yet had enough money to build the bomb used in the attack, rent three properties and travel back and forth to and from Libya. It is believed while in Libya, he attended terrorist training camps.
Abedi used one of these rental properties to construct the bomb he detonated in the Manchester Arena.
In 2015, Abedi enrolled in a business administration program at Salford University and received a student loan in the amount £7,000. The money was provided by the Student Loans Company that is funded by British taxpayers.
The following year, Abedi received another loan of £7,000 even though he had dropped out of school. The university refused to tell The Telegraph whether they had informed the Student Loans Company Abedi had dropped out and was not entitled to receive a student loan in 2016. The Student Loans Company would also not provide any information to the newspaper, saying it would not be proper to do so in the middle of a police investigation.
Also not commenting is the Department of Works and Pensions. All they would say is Abedi was not receiving benefits in the weeks leading up to the terrorist attack. The department would not say if Abedi had received housing benefits or income support at any time when he might have been planning the attack.
The Telegraph also reported Abedi withdrew £250 in cash three days before the attack and transferred £2,500 to one of his brothers in Libya. Hashem Abedi was arrested in Libya. Not only is it alleged he knew all about the Manchester terrorist attack before it happened but it is believed he was planning to carry out his own attack.
David Videcette, a former London Metropolitan Police detective who worked on the 7/7 terrorist attack, said the system of student loans is a really easy way for terrorists to use taxpayer money to finance what they do. “All you have to do is get yourself into university and then off you go. Often they have no intention of turning up.”
Anthony Glees, of the Buckingham University’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, told The Telegraph there are no checks on students who do not attend university and use their loans for terrorism. Glees is calling for an inquiry into the use of taxpayer money to fund terrorism.
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