Friends said the 21-year-old British military computer engineer wanted to be a cyber star.

Daniel Abed Khalife's capture by British counter-terrorism officers on September 9, 2023, was as dramatic as his alleged breakout from London's Wandsworth Prison days earlier when he's said to have strapped himself to the underside of a prison food delivery truck.

After Khalife was spotted in west London, armed police with sniffer dogs searched overnight, checking car trunks and asking residents to produce identification. Khalife was finally arrested at about 11 am after he was reportedly pulled off of a bike by a plainclothes officer.
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He is accused under Britain’s Official Secrets Act with collecting information that could be beneficial to an enemy. The BBC has said the country in question was understood to be Iran.

Some 150 counter-terrorism police joined the manhunt for Khalife, who is also accused of leaving fake bombs at a military base before his initial arrest in January 2022.
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Who is Daniel Khalife?

Khalife was born in London and lived on the outskirts of the city with his mother and twin sister in Kingston.

He attended Teddington School. Friends described him as the ‘class clown’ before he retreated more into his shell. Khalife has been serving in the British Army as a computer network engineer with the Royal Corps of Signals.

One colleague described him as "a bit of a fantasist” and someone who sought attention. He apparently nicked a senior officer’s epaulettes, put them on his uniform, and wanted to post photos of himself on social media. During military training, Khalife was expected to participate in field basic field exercises which involved living off the land while on operations.

He was due to face a six-week trial in November 2023 before he is accused of escaping from prison. He denied the initial charges against him and pleaded not guilty to escaping from Wandsworth prison. A trial is set for late 2024. Khalife is being held in maximum security HMP Belmarsh, also home to Julian Assange. No prisoner has ever escaped from Belmarsh, although some have tried.

At least one other man was arrested in connection with Khalife's alleged escape. The 24-year-old was arrested in east London on suspicion of assisting an offender. and released on bail. He is not a member of the prison staff.

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The British government is under pressure to explain why Khalife - denied bail and labeled a flight risk - was allowed to work in the prison kitchen, generally a role for the most trusted inmates.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that Khalife may have been aided in his alleged escape. Authorities said there was a gap between the truck leaving the prison and being stopped and searched by police. Authorities had offered up to $25,000 for info that led to Khalife's arrest.

Khalife isn't the only prisoner to escape from a British prison over the years. In the 1983 Maze Prison escape, 38 Provisional Irish Republican Army members escaped in Northern Ireland, the biggest prison break-out in British history. British MI6-KGB double agent George Blake also escaped during the Cold War by scaling the wall at Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966. He headed to East Berlin and then on to Russia.