Officials have said that they are actively searching for a British soldier who is waiting for his trial on terror charges. The soldier managed to escape from a prison in London on Wednesday by disguising himself as a chef.
Daniel Abed Khalife, who is 21 years old, disappeared from Wandsworth prison in southwest London just before 8 in the morning. The time of the specific area. He was waiting to go to court for crimes related to terrorism and breaking the Official Secrets Act.
Khalife is currently a member of the British army. According to the PA Media news agency, he is being accused of putting fake bombs at a military base.
The bold and unusual escape caused a big search for the person and made flights late and security checks stricter at ports in Britain.
Khalife was wearing a chef’s outfit which included red and white pants, a white shirt, and brown shoes, according to Counter Terrorism Commander Dominic Murphy, who spoke to reporters outside Scotland Yard in London on Wednesday.
According to the news agency PA, he managed to escape by holding onto a delivery van. When he was asked about the reports, Murphy said that it was something the prison service had to respond to.
The police are asking the British public for help in finding something.
Police said he is thin, with short brown hair, and he stands at about 6 feet and 2 inches tall.
Murphy mentioned that the investigation is mainly focused on London right now. However, we have also sent notifications to every police department in the country.
“We are working closely with colleagues at the border to understand if he could cause problems if he leaves the country. Right now, it’s like a big search across the whole country involving every police force that has information that could help us. ” Murphy explained
When asked if he thinks the man will run away from the country, Murphy said he can’t say for sure right now. We are open to considering wherever he might go, and I think that’s why it’s important for the public to be interested. He is currently not caught in the UK, and although we are concentrating on London, he has connections to other areas like the northwest of the country. So, we need to collaborate with everyone to try to locate him.
The police said what Khalife did wrong in January. They accused him of trying to get information that could help someone plan a terrorist act in August 2021.
Another accusation claims that he placed something with the intention of making someone believe that it could explode or catch fire and cause harm to people or things.
On Wednesday, Murphy said that he thinks Khalife is not very likely to harm the public, but he still advised people not to approach him.
British airports and ports are having problems after police warned them about Khalife’s escape.
Manchester Airport had delays of around half an hour on Wednesday afternoon because they started doing more security checks.
Right now, there are extra checks on cars leaving the Port of Dover and other entry points in the UK because of a police issue. This was shared by Port of Dover Travel on X, which used to be called Twitter.
“This is causing delays at the port right now. ”
Escaping from prisons in the UK hardly ever happens. According to data from the British government, there was only one person who escaped from a place in England and Wales in the year 2021-22. Before that year, there were no escapes, and only a few in the years before that.
Wandsworth is a type of prison called Category B. It is the second-highest level of security out of four levels. This is one of the biggest prisons in Britain and it holds over 1,600 prisoners.
Tag: Terror
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Terror suspect on the lam after escaping London jail
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Nigeria drops terror charges against separatist leader Kanu
A Nigerian separatist leader accused of terrorism and instigating violence in the country’s southeast was acquitted Thursday by a local court, his lawyer told The Associated Press.
The Nigerian Court of Appeal dismissed the government-filed charges against Nnamdi Kanu in Abuja, the nation’s capital, after a jury faulted the legality of the case against him, according to Ifeanyi Ejiofor, his lawyer. Kanu is yet to be released from custody.
The Indigenous People of Biafra separatist group that Kanu leads has been pressing for the southeast region to break away from the West African nation and become independent. But the Nigerian government said he uses the group known as IPOB to instigate violence, leading to the deaths of many in the country’s southeast.
Kanu had been facing trial for alleged treason and terrorism but escaped Nigeria in 2017 while on bail. He was rearrested in June last year and brought back to Nigeria from an undisclosed country.
The separatist leader, who also holds British citizenship, pleaded not guilty at the resumption of his trial which his group has said is being used to stifle his secessionist campaign. The campaign reminds many of the short-lived Republic of Biafra that fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from Nigeria. An estimated 1 million people died in the war, many of starvation.
After he was acquitted, Emma Powerful, a spokesman for the Biafra group, told the AP, “Our next target is to ensure that Biafra liberation is materialized and no human being can stop it.”
Kanu’s trial reechoed allegations of marginalization in Nigeria’s southeast region made up of the Igbos, Nigeria’s third-largest ethnic group who are mainly Christians. Nigeria’s more than 200 million people are almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.
Amid the calls for a referendum, the IPOB secessionist group became more violent, authorities and experts have said. The formation of the Eastern Security Network, its paramilitary arm, in December 2020 coincided with a spike in criminal attacks in the region.
IPOB has also been outlawed as a terrorist organization by Nigerian authorities. Many of the group’s members have been arrested. A jailbreak in Imo state led to the escape of nearly 2,000 inmates earlier this year.
Source: Africa News