Former soldier Daniel Khalife has entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of escaping from Wandsworth prison in London. Khalife is accused of escaping from lawful custody and was allegedly on the run for four days following his escape on September 6.
The 21-year-old appeared in court via video link from HMP Belmarsh and was dressed in a bright blue and yellow sweatshirt.
Khalife is alleged to have escaped from prison by securing himself to the underside of a food delivery vehicle using bedsheets.
He was apprehended by a plain-clothes counter-terrorism officer while riding a bicycle along a canal towpath in Northolt, west London, on the morning of September 9.
Appearing at the Old Bailey, Khalife was charged with escaping from HMP Wandsworth. When asked if he was guilty or not guilty, he responded, “I am not guilty.”
Khalife is scheduled to return to the Old Bailey on October 13 and is set to stand trial at Woolwich Crown Court on November 13.
In addition to the escape charge, he faces three other charges related to collecting information useful to an enemy (allegedly Iran), eliciting information about armed forces members potentially useful for terrorism preparations, and perpetrating a bomb hoax.
