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Who is Abdel Bary? Bin Laden's friend ‘to get taxpayer-funded house’ in UK after early release from US jail

Bary, 60, was convicted for being involved in the 1998 terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that resulted in the loss of 224 lives
PUBLISHED OCT 13, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Terrorist Osama Bin Laden's friend, Abel Abdel Bary, is possibly set to get a "taxpayer-funded house" when he returns to the United Kingdom after receiving an early release from a United States prison. Bary's expected return to the UK has been denounced by many as reports emerge that the UK government will likely give him a taxpayer-funded house in an effort to control his movements in the country. 

Bary, 60, born in Egypt, was convicted for being involved in the terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that resulted in the loss of 224 lives and wounded another 5,000 people in 1998. He reportedly led a cell called the "media information office" for Bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks in the US. Barry was apprehended and arrested in 1999 in London over the US embassy bombings and was extradited to the US years later in 2012, where he was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to murder. Having served 16 years of his sentence on remand, the 60-year-old is set to be freed this month. 

"He will almost certainly live in a house paid for by taxpayers because that will be the only sure-fire way of monitoring his movements effectively," a source told The Sun. 

Bary, who is obese and suffers from asthma, was stationed in a medium-security prison in New Jersey where nearly 10 percent of inmates had tested positive for coronavirus, according to his lawyer. He was released several weeks earlier than the planned October 28 date and taken into immigration custody after his release on October 9. US district judge Lewis Kaplan, while giving his early release, said: "It is not sufficient to keep him away from his family in what could be the final period of his life."

It is noteworthy that his son, Abdel Majed Abdel Bary, is one of the most wanted ISIS terrorists in Europe and was caught in Spain in April this year. The former rap artist, who posed with a severed head in Syria and promised death to all westerners, left the UK in 2013 to join ISIS. He left the group two years later, and investigators believe entered Spain a few days before his arrest in Almeria. 

Reports state that British officials, after Bary's return to the UK, will not be permitted to place restrictions his movements because he has already served his sentence in the US. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen also denounced the decision, saying that Bary should be denied entry into the UK. Bridgen said: “If there were ever grounds for the Home Office to refuse entry to someone, this is it. His track record is appalling and he is clearly not a desirable returnee." Meanwhile, think tank, the Henry Jackson Society's Dr Alan Mendoza also called the terrorist return to the UK "shameful." Mendoza said: "It is shameful we might have to accept the return of this dangerous terrorist."

Bary initially came to the attention of Egyptian authorities in 1981 when he was imprisoned and tortured after President Anwar Sadat's murder in October that year. He eventually applied for political asylum in Britain during his return trip from the US to Egypt through the UK in 1991. Bary was granted asylum by the Second Major ministry in 1993. Reports state that he used his contacts at Amnesty International — which he obtained because of his torture — to gain favor for his cause in London. 

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