Daniel Abed Khalife: Former UK soldier-turned-terror suspect on the run after an audacious prison escape

A former UK soldier-turned-terror suspect who faces allegations of spying for Iran is on the run after an audacious prison escape.

Daniel Abed Khalife is accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by passing on classified information, sources said.

Khalife was meant to be working in the kitchens at London-based prison HMP Wandsworth when he sneaked out and strapped himself underneath a delivery van.

Dressed as a chef, the former Royal Signals soldier evaded guards and cameras as the lorry was driven out.

His disappearance from the south-west London prison went unnoticed for some minutes before the alarm was raised at 7.50am on Wednesday.

There was chaos at airports and ports, leading to delays for passengers, as Border Force officials carried out extra security checks in a race to find the fugitive amid fears he may be planning to flee the country.

Questions are now being asked about why 21-year-old Khalife had been placed in a lower-risk prison as he had been denied bail on the basis he was considered a flight risk.

The ex-serviceman, formally based at Beacon barracks in Stafford, was charged in January with breaching the Official Secrets Act by allegedly committing “an act prejudicial to the safety or interests” of the UK in a plot said to be linked to a “hostile nation”.

British-born but said to have Middle Eastern heritage, Khalife was said to have gathered details that “could be useful to an enemy” between May 2019 and January 2022.

He was also charged with eliciting information about members of the Armed Forces useful for terrorism, by recording personal details from the Ministry of Defence joint personnel administration system on August 2, 2021.

Khalife was then arrested after allegedly planting fake bombs — three canisters with wires — on a desk in his barracks accommodation on January 2 this year.

The soldier was discharged from the Army when he faced criminal accusations of perpetrating a bomb hoax “with the intention of inducing a belief in another that the said items were likely to explode or ignite”.

Since his arrest, judges have refused to grant the terror suspect bail ahead of his trial at Woolwich Crown Court on November 20.

Khalife was last seen in public at the Old Bailey in July when he denied all three charges.

In recent months, the prisoner had been working as a porter in the prison kitchens and turned up for duty on Wednesday morning dressed in his chef ’s uniform of a white T-shirt, distinctive red and white chequered trousers and brown steel-toe boots.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk demanded urgent updates from Wandsworth’s governor and senior Prison Service bosses after the jail was placed in lockdown.

Sources said the minister received a run-through of “all security measures that have been taken in the medium term to ensure the prison is secure as possible”.

There will be further longer-term work on improving Wandsworth’s security checks, a source added.

Helicopters and plainclothes officers swooped on a residential area of Kingston, south-west London, where Khalife’s family is known to have had connections, but it’s believed there was no sign of Khalife himself.

Police believe the fugitive may still be hiding out in London, but due to the serious nature of the charges against him, security alerts were issued to all ports and airports.

Authorities appealed for help in tracing the fugitive, described as being of slim build, with short brown hair and 6ft 2ins tall.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: “We have a team of officers who are making extensive and urgent enquiries in order to locate and detain Khalife as quickly as possible.”

It is not the first time an inmate has broken out of Wandsworth. In 1965, Ronnie Biggs famously escaped from the prison where he was serving a 30-year sentence for his part in the Great Train Robbery.

Around 1,300 convicts are in Wandsworth, with other former inmates including tennis legend Boris Becker, who was jailed for fraud before being released last December