Daniel Abed Khalife, a former British soldier accused of sharing sensitive information with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, pleaded guilty on Monday to escaping from prison while
awaiting trial. The 23-year-old is currently facing trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court, accused of gathering sensitive data between May 2019 and January 2022.
Khalife, who is no longer affiliated with the British armed forces, also faces allegations of planting a fake bomb at his barracks and fleeing from his military base in 2023. Prosecutors claim Khalife escaped from London's Wandsworth Prison in September 2023 by securing himself to the underside of a delivery van, which prompted a brief but intense nationwide search.
Initially, Khalife pleaded not guilty to the prison escape charge but changed his plea to guilty on Monday after several days of testimony. Despite admitting to the prison break, he still denies three other charges: gathering information potentially useful to an enemy (specifically Iran), obtaining information likely to aid terrorism, and committing a bomb hoax.
His trial on these remaining charges continues. Photo by Derek Harper, Wikimedia commons.