06 January 2025 , 12:32
643
0
A man has been charged with helping Daniel Khalife, the former British army soldier who passed secrets to Iran, after his escape from prison.
Imran Chowdury 25, allegedly assisted the inmate after he broke out from HMP Wandsworth in south London.
Khalife bolted for freedom by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery truck in September 2023.
At the time, he had been placed in the jail on remand after being arrested for spending two years spying for Iran’s regime while serving with the Royal Signals Regiment.
Khalife moments after he was re-arrested on a canal towpath (Picture: PA)
He spent 75 hours on the run as the Metropolitan Police deployed dozens of officers and two helicopters in the hunt.
A reward of £20,000 was put on offer for any information that would help lead to his recapture.
Khalife was finally arrested by a plain-clothes police officer on the fourth day of the mission to find him.
The man who allegedly helped him, Chowdury, was arrested months later, in January last year.
He was charged in December, with one count of assisting an escaped prisoner.
Chowdury, from Chingford, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.
No further action was taken against a 25-year-old woman also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in February.