Daniel Khalife: Spy and Terror Suspect damages Trust in Prisons

Daniel Abed Khalife, recently known as ‘Britain’s most wanted man’, escaped prison and evaded capture for four days before he was arrested by undercover police and charged with escaping from custody.

Khalife was on trial for violating the Official Secrets Act between 2019 and 2022, reportedly collecting sensitive and confidential data for enemies or terrorists — reports closely correlated Khalife with helping the Iranian regime. In January 2023, Khalife placed a fake bomb in his army lodgings. He was charged with a terror offence and perpetrating a bomb hoax after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, for which the army relieved him from duty in May.

The Central Criminal Court at Old Bailey set 13 November 2023 as the date of his trial at the Woolwich Crown Court. Meanwhile, he was being held at HMP Wandsworth, a south London Category B jail. Ian Acheson told BBC News that the Category B prison is “not an obvious place for somebody who has been charged with terror offences and is potentially a national security risk.”

On the 6th of September, Khalife escaped wearing his cook’s uniform at 07:50 am on Wednesday. He is believed to have strapped himself to the bottom of a delivery lorry using bedsheets. Following his escape, a nationwide manhunt was declared with delays being reported at Dover Port, London Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport border control due to additional security measures.

Khalife was arrested on Saturday on a canal towpath in West London, less than 20 miles from HMP Wandsworth by undercover police and was then taken into custody. Khalife was originally due to face trial on prior terrorism charges in November. He has now been remanded in custody on the further charge of escaping prison, and is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday 29 September.

While harsher prison sentences rise, and politicians carry the two decades-long legacy of being ‘tough on crime’, Khalife’s escape may serve to remind the nation that a failing prison system and poorly trained facility staff is deserving of renovation and better management.

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