British authorities captured a former soldier imprisoned for terrorism-related offenses and escaped from prison four days ago in London on Saturday.
Daniel Abed Khalife, 21, absconded from London’s Wandsworth prison on Wednesday morning after slipping out of the prison kitchen where he was working and strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery truck.
Metropolitan Police counterterrorism boss Commander Dominic Murphy told reporters the 21-year-old former soldier, who escaped HMP Wandsworth four days ago, was arrested on suspicion of being unlawfully at large and being an escaped prisoner.
He was apprehended just before 11 a.m. on Saturday on a canal towpath in west London and is now in police custody, the force said.
Officers conducted an “intelligence-led search at a residential premises” in the Richmond area. Although Khalife was not found there, the force received a number of calls from the public with sightings of the suspect nearby.
Murphy said about the investigation: “It’s been about 75 hours since he went missing from the prison to the point of his arrest. That’s pretty quick, given the challenge of trying to find this individual.
“He was arrested yesterday for being unlawfully at large and an escaped prisoner.
“In terms of the investigation, it really gathered momentum yesterday afternoon, with a number of calls from the public, but really took a different course last night when we did an intelligence-led search in the Richmond area in the early hours of this morning.
“While we didn’t find him at that search, while we were at that search, we had a number of calls from the public over the next hour or two, giving us various sightings of him.”
Addressing the arrest, Mr. Murphy said after he was pulled off the push bike, Khalife was “fully cooperative and handcuffed and arrested.”
He said: “At 10.41 a.m., he was arrested in Rowdell Road in UB5 in London on the canal towpath.
“He was actually arrested by a plain clothes officer ... and he was riding a pedal cycle, so a pushbike, at the time, was pulled off that pushbike by that officer and arrested at that location.
“Upon being detained by the officer, he was fully cooperative and handcuffed and arrested.”
Questioned on why it took four days to complete the search, Mr. Murphy said: “This isn’t a TV program.
“This is a real-life manhunt for somebody who has escaped from prison and he’s quite a resourceful young man.”
He added: “The reality is I was confident we were going to find him and I’m pleased to say we have.”
Murphy said police have not had a claim for the £20,000 reward yet.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaking to reporters at the G-20 gathering in New Delhi, thanked the police and the public for their help finding Khalife.
Khalife, who was discharged from the British army in May, was being held in prison ahead of trial on offenses relating to terrorism and the Official Secrets Act.
He is accused of eliciting or trying to elicit information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism. At the same time, he was based at barracks in central England in 2021 and staging a bomb hoax by placing three canisters with wires on a desk.
He is also charged with obtaining information that might be “directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.” The BBC has reported he was accused of gathering intelligence for Iran.
Opposition lawmakers have demanded answers into how Khalife had been able to escape and why he was not being held at a maximum security prison. There are also questions about the jail’s staffing and security procedures.
The hunt to track down Khalife meant enhanced security checks at U.K. ports and airports, which have led to delays for passengers.
