The top police officer of Britain He said Friday that an investigation into how a terror suspect escaped from prison would examine whether he received help. The former soldier is believed Daniel Abed Khalife21, tied himself to the bottom of a delivery van to escape from prison Wandsworth last Wednesday.
His disappearance has caused a nationwide manhunt and an alert in all ports to prevent him from leaving the country.
On Friday morning, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowleysaid the search was focused on the extensive park Richmondnearly Wandsworthin south London.
The BBC points out that Khalife “is accused of trying to spy for an enemy state, allegedly Iran”, in addition to an unclear fact with a false bomb threat.
Furthermore, the police referred to the truck route which the former soldier used to escape from Wandsworth prison. Dominic Murphy, head of the Counter-Terrorism Command of the Met (London Metropolitan Police), said that the vehicle he used to escape was captured in North Sheen, southwest of London. Less than an hour had passed since he was declared missing. But Khalife was no longer there.
Detectives believe he was wearing his prison cook’s uniform when he fled. Bidfood, the catering company that owns the truck involved, assured that its driver had “cooperated fully with the police.”
Commander Murphy said it was “a bit unusual and perhaps a testament to the ingenuity [del señor Khalife]” that had not been discovered, despite 50 calls from the public offering “valuable lines of investigation.”
Murphy considers that “he is a trained soldier, so, ultimately, he has skills that perhaps some sectors of the public do not have.”
Rowley He added to LBC radio in an interview that the escape was “clearly planned in advance.”
“The fact that it could be tied to the bottom of the carriage, I mean, there’s obviously some logistics involved on the inside,” he said.
“Just thinking about a prison break and how you can do the logistics of it and get the right equipment and how it’s going to be done is unlikely to be something you do on the spur of the moment.”
Khalife’s escape has raised wider questions about security in UK prisons, which staff say have been hit by a lack of funding and staff shortages.
Asked if it could have been an “inside job”, Rowley said: “We’re going to take a look at everything as part of this investigation.”
Khalife was awaiting trial for two incidents at the Royal Air Force base (RAF) in Stafford, central England, near the army barracks where he lived.
He was accused of “attempt to obtain information of a type that may be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism” in August 2021.
He was also charged with bomb fraud by planting a suspicious device at the RAF base on January 2 this year. He was discharged from the Army in May.
British police searched a huge London park on Friday in search of a former soldier who escaped from prison while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that a search in Richmond Parkin the southwest of the city, which involved two helicopters and ground agents, was related to the search for Khalife.
The leak has prompted extra security checks at airports and at the port of Dover, the main crossing for ships from England to France. But activity centered on Richmond Park, 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) of woodland and grassland about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Wandsworth Prison. The park is home to more than 630 red deer and fallow deer that have roamed freely since 1637.
Opposition politicians demanded to know how Khalife managed to escape from the medium-security prison and why he was not being held in a maximum-security facility. The Conservative government has said there will be an independent investigation.
(With information from AFP and AP)
Source-www.infobae.com