Man held over Daniel Khalife alleged prison escape
- Published
Daniel Khalife is due to go on trial in October on charges including that he escaped from HMP Wandsworth
A man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the alleged escape of Daniel Khalife from HMP Wandsworth last September.
The 24-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday morning at an address in east London on suspicion of assisting an offender, and was taken into custody at a London police station.
He was subsequently bailed to a date in late April.
Police said the man is not a member of staff at HMP Wandsworth.
The Metropolitan Police said the arrest was carried out by officers from the Met's Counter Terrorism Command as part of their ongoing investigation and is linked to the alleged escape of 22-year-old Mr Khalife.
Mr Khalife is due to go on trial at the Old Bailey in October after pleading not guilty to charges including that he escaped from HMP Wandsworth in south London.
He allegedly escaped the prison by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle with bedsheets on 6 September.
The former soldier is then alleged to have spent four days on the run, sparking a huge search operation to find him.
Police said he was arrested by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer four days after his alleged escape while riding a bike along a canal towpath in Northolt, west London.
He will also face trial in relation to three other charges, which are:
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
Perpetrating a bomb hoax
Det Ch Supt Gareth Rees, of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, said Wednesday's "arrest follows months of careful investigation into the alleged escape and inquiries remain ongoing into this."
He added: "We understand that there will be significant public and media interest in this arrest but with Mr Khalife now charged and awaiting trial, it is extremely important that people do not report, comment or share information, including online, which could in any way prejudice these future court proceedings."