An investigation has been launched into how a suspected terrorist accused of trying to leak military secrets to Iran was able to escape prison by clinging to the bottom of a food delivery truck yesterday. Meanwhile, the manhunt goes nationwide.

The UK’s Counter Terrorism Command has put out an alert nationwide and notified airports, ports, and borders after a soldier accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act and staging a bomb hoax at his barracks escaped from pre-trial detention. Daniel Abed Khalife, who is alleged to have tried to gain access to personnel files on a Ministry of Defence computer to pass to Iran, clung to the bottom of a visiting food delivery van at Wandsworth prison, London, early Wednesday morning.

While police initially advised he was believed to have links to the Kingston area of London, the search has now been widened nationwide, with extra security at ports leading to delays for travellers as checks were carried out at some borders, The Guardian reports. A former top police officer speaking to the BBC has said there is already “every likelihood” that Khalife has already left the United Kingdom in the nearly 30-hours since he escaped.

Lorries queue for the Port of Dover along the A20 in Kent as security checks are being carried out amid an ongoing effort to track down an escaped terrorism suspect, Daniel Abed Khalife. Picture date: Thursday September 7, 2023. (Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

Questions have now asked why the former soldier was being held in a B-category prison rather than a high-security A-category facility, and an “independent” investigation into how the escape was possible has been launched. The Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has said a number of questions need to be asked about how Khalife was able to escape, including who was on duty at the prison at the time and whether protocols to prevent escape were actually followed.

Daniel Abed Khalife appeared earlier this year to answer three charges, all of which he denies. It has now been revealed for the first time that the “enemy” he is accused of seeking to aid is Iran. As reported:

Khalife was being held pending trial at Wandsworth on for “terrorism and Official Secrets Act offences”. A July 2023 report about his case states Khalife, who has denied the charges against him, had acted against the “safety and interests of the State” in 2021 by using his access to an Army personnel file database to collect information which would be “useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.

He was also accused of leaving “three canisters with wires” at his barracks at MOD Stafford which was allegedly a bomb hoax. Khalife was told by a magistrate in February that: “These matters are very serious… If you are convicted, you are going to face a prison sentence in years not months.”

His trial was due to be on November 13th.