One of the Manchester Arena terrorists is alleged to have “attacked three prison officers with cooking oil and makeshift weapons” and leaving them with life-threatening injuries.. Hashem Abedi is currently behind bars at HMP Frankland in Durham.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said officers received life-threatening injuries after Abedi allegedly assaulted them in an “unprovoked” attack. They suffered stab wounds and burns after he used makeshift weapons to stab them and also threw hot cooking oil over them, the POA said.
One of the officers was released from hospital after being treated after the alleged attack on Saturday morning. Two of the officers are still being treated.
The association’s national chair Mark Fairhurst said in a statement: “First and foremost, my thoughts are with the injured staff, their families and colleagues. No officer should be subject to cowardly and vicious attacks at work. The POA will support our members as much as we need during this traumatic time. This attack displays the dangers brave prison officers face on a daily basis.
Mr Fairhurst called for a review of the “freedoms” separation centre prisoners are allowed.. Abedi is held in a separation centre in Frankland, which is designed ti manage and isolte prisoners with terrorism and extremism associated risks.
“Separation centres hold the most dangerous terrorist offenders who simply do not wish to alter their ideology – and as this event confirms, are determined to inflict violence on those who hold them securely,” Mr Fairhurst said. “We must now review the freedoms we allow separation centre prisoners to have. I am of the opinion that allowing access to cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff should be removed immediately.
“These prisoners need only receive their basic entitlements and we should concentrate on control and containment instead of attempting to appease them. Things have to change.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Three prison officers have been treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner at HMP Frankland. Police are now investigating so it would be inappropriate to comment further. Violence in prison will not be tolerated, and we will always push for the strongest punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”
Bomb plotter Abedi was convicted of conspiring with his suicide-bomber brother Salman Abedi over thea trocity that killed 22 men, women and children and injured hundreds more on May 22, 2017. He was jailed in 2020 for at least 55 years, but avoided a whole-life order because he was 21 at the time.
He was convicted after a court heard he was “just as guilty” as his brother, who detonated the bomb at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. Abedi, 23, refused to leave his cell at the Old Bailey for the sentencing. Mr Justice Jeremy Baker told the court “the stark reality is, these were atrocious crimes. Large in scale, deadly in intent, appalling in their consequences. The despair and desolation of the bereaved families has been palpable.”
He told Abedi, formerly of Fallowfield, Manchester, he would spend at least 55 years in prison before he could even be considered for parole, adding he “may never be released”
Manchester-born Abedi, who had travelled to Libya before the bombing, was arrested shortly after the terror attack and extradited to Britain to face trial. The court heard how the brothers spent months ordering, stockpiling and transporting the deadly materials required for the attack.
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