Daniel Khalife: Terror suspect who escaped UK prison accused of spying for Iran, says BBC

A man who broke out of a prison in the UK on Wednesday was suspected of spying for Iran, according to the BBC.

Daniel Khalife was being held in Wandsworth prison on terror offence charges, including "collecting information which might be useful to an enemy".

The BBC reported on Thursday that they understood the "enemy" in question to be Iran.

Khalife, a serving British army soldier, was reported to have been working in the prison kitchen and wearing a chef's uniform of a white T-shirt and red and white chequered trousers when he escaped by clinging to the bottom of a delivery van.

The Metropolitan Police said ports and airports had been put on high alert, though they said he was likely to still be in the London area.

"We have no information which indicates, nor any reason to believe that Khalife poses a threat to the wider public," said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

Khalife appeared in court in London on 28 January, accused of "attempting to elicit information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" in August 2021. 

He was also charged over planting a hoax bomb at the Royal Air Force base in Stafford, central England, on 2 January this year.  

Iran has made no comment yet on the allegations reported by the BBC.