Daniel Abed Khalife: Everything to know about alarming escape of terror suspect who is yet to be found

Yesterday morning, on Wednesday 6 September at around 7:50AM, a 21-year-old ex-soldier accused of terrorism escaped from a prison. Daniel Abed Khalife has shocked the UK by managing to break out of HMP Wandsworth, a jail in southwest London, where he was awaiting trial.

Sky News reported that extra security checks are being carried out at London Gatwick and other UK airports as the nation's manhunt for Khalife intensifies. Here’s everything we know so far about the escape and why Daniel Abed Khalife was in jail.

The terror suspect’s escape

Khalife reportedly went missing shortly before 8AM. He had been working in the kitchen of HMP Wandsworth, which is a category B jail.This means it has the second highest level of security. He was wearing his cook’s uniform.

He is suspected to have escaped by attaching himself somehow to the bottom of a food delivery van.As soon as his escape was reported, the jail went on full lockdown.

The metropolitan police issued an urgent appeal to trace and find Khalife. Dominic Murphy, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command Commander, said there are no signs that the escapee poses a threat to the public, ‘but our advice if you do see him is not to approach him and call 999 straight away’.

According to Sky News, he was last seen wearing a white top, red and white chequered trousers and brown steel-toe-cap boots. Khalife is slim, with short brown hair, and he is 6ft 2in.

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Why Khalife was accused of terrorism?

Khalife, a former member of the Royal Signals who was based at Beacon Barracks in Stafford, was charged on 27 January after an investigation by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

He is accused of having elicited information about members of the armed forces that could be useful for terrorism, under section 58 of the Terrorism Act. This was reportedly carried out through the Ministry of Defence joint personal administration system on 2 August 2021.

Under the Official Secrets Act, he allegedly ‘obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated to another person articles, notes, documents or information which were calculated to be or might be or were intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy’.

Khalife has also been charged with carrying out a bomb hoax, which involved him placing three canisters with wires on a desk in his accommodation and convincing another person that this contraption was ‘likely to explode’. In July, he appeared at the Old Bailey and denied all charges against him.

The manhunt for this escapee is ongoing, and though he has links to northwest England and Kingston in London, the search is covering the whole of the UK. All airports and ports have been alerted.

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Sources used:

Sky News: Daniel Abed Khalife: What we know about escaped prisoner as police hunt terror suspect

Sky News: Manhunt latest: Ex-soldier escaped 'under a truck dressed as chef'; extra security at Gatwick airport