A 25-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of aiding an offender as part of the ongoing investigation into the alleged escape of prisoner Daniel Khalife. The Metropolitan Police made the arrest at an address in east London.
This development follows the previous arrest of a 24-year-old man last month on similar charges. Khalife, a 22-year-old ex-soldier, is accused of escaping from Wandsworth prison and spent approximately four days on the run last year before being recaptured.
The woman and the man arrested are not employees of HMP Wandsworth. Both individuals remain on bail until a scheduled court appearance in late April.
Alleged Prison Escape of Daniel Khalife (Credits: Euronews.com)
The charges against Khalife stem from his alleged escape from HMP Wandsworth in southwest London, where he purportedly strapped himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle using bedsheets on September 6.
Following his escape, a massive search operation was launched, leading to his arrest four days later by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer who found him riding a bike along a canal towpath in Northolt, west London.
Scheduled for trial at the Old Bailey in October, Khalife faces charges of escaping lawful custody along with three additional charges: Collecting information useful to the enemy, allegedly Iran, Eliciting information about members of the armed forces likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism, and Perpetrating a bomb hoax.
Detective Chief Superintendent Gareth Rees, head of operations for the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, leading the investigation, emphasized that a thorough inquiry is ongoing into the circumstances surrounding Khalife’s alleged escape. The recent arrests of two individuals are part of this comprehensive investigation.
