Manchester Arena Inquiry: Bomber 'sent money to family before attack'

Rabie Zreba said Salman Abedi provided a false name when they met

The Manchester Arena bomber transferred money to his family in Libya hours before the attack, a public inquiry into the 2017 bombing has heard.

Rabie Zreba, who made the transfer, said he was contacted by a man he did not know on the afternoon of 22 May.

The man was Salman Abedi, who provided Mr Zreba with a fake name and asked him to transfer £470, the inquiry heard.

Later that night, Abedi detonated a bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert, murdering 22 people.

Mr Zreba told the inquiry he was "well known within the Libyan community" for being involved in small trade and money transfers.

He said he met Abedi, who gave the false name "Mohamed Araby" and asked him to transfer the money to his family, outside a mosque.

The total amount transferred was £470 and Abedi gave the recipient's name as "Muad Al-Tabbal".

The surname of Abedi's mother, who is a suspect in the investigation into the bombing, is Tabbal.

While the attack was being prepared, Salman Abedi and his brother Hashem Abedi used their mother's benefits money which was paid into a UK bank account despite her having moved to Libya.

Mr Zreba also described how he was "frightened and shocked" when on his way home he ended up at Victoria station, located below the arena, shortly after the bombing.

Asked if Salman Abedi had said anything to him about avoiding the area, he replied: "Had he said something like that, I would have [had] the honour to report him to save the lives of the victims."

Rabie Zreba and Salman Abedi met outside a mosque in Manchester city centre on 22 May 2017

A former friend of Hashem Abedi told the inquiry they became friends after meeting at a party in Manchester in 2015 and spent time together in Libya, where they took drugs.

The witness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said, following a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, Hashem Abedi became "very devout, very religious".

But he said Hashem Abedi continued to party and take drugs, describing him as "weird" during a trip to Amsterdam in October 2016.

"We'd smoke weed and he would go home and pray and ask for forgiveness," he recalled.

The witness said Hashem Abedi asked him in March 2017 to buy sulphuric acid for a battery, which he declined to do after his father suggested the request was "dodgy".

But he told the hearing he broke off contact with Hashem Abedi out of embarrassment at not making the purchase rather than because he suspected his friend was planning something unlawful.

The inquiry continues.