Terror suspect Daniel Khalife pleads not guilty to escaping HMP Wandsworth after nationwide manhunt

Daniel Khalife denies allegedly escaping from HMP Wandsworth by strapping himself to a van with bedsheets, he appeared at the Old Bailey via video link on Thursday


A terror suspect who sparked a nationwide police manhunt after he allegedly escaped custody at HMP Wandsworth has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Former soldier Daniel Khalife, 21, entered a not-guilty plea at the Old Bailey on September 21 to the charge of escaping custody at HMP Wandsworth where he was on remand after being charged with terror offences earlier this year.

He appeared via video link from HMP Belmarsh at the Old Bailey to deny the charge.

Khalife, who was wearing a blue and yellow sweatshirt, said: “I am not guilty.”

He is accused of escaping from prison on September 6 by allegedly strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle.

Khalife was arrested on a canal towpath in west London at 10.41am on September 9 after being pulled off a push bike by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer.

He had been in Wandsworth Prison awaiting trial after allegedly planting a fake bomb at an RAF base and gathering information that might be useful to terrorists or enemies of the UK.

He denied those charges at a previous hearing at the Old Bailey in July.

Mr Justice Jeremy Baker joined the charges and Khalife will be tried at Woolwich Crown Court on November 13 for all four offences.


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