UK counter-terrorism police are providing support to the investigation into the death of a Daily Telegraph journalist in Gibraltar.
David Knowles died while on holiday on Sunday after what his employers said was believed to be a cardiac arrest.
The audio journalist, 32, had joined the Telegraph in 2020 and was behind its Ukraine: The Latest podcast.
The Royal Gibraltar police (RGP) said in a statement on Thursday that a policing “mutual aid” request for specialist support had been submitted to UK police, adding: “There are no specific concerns at this time with regard to the death.”
“Following the RGP’s mutual aid request, detectives from UK counter terrorism policing have been appointed to provide support to the RGP investigation, due to their existing capability and their experience of dealing with international inquiries,” it added.
The coroner in Gibraltar has been informed and a coroner’s investigation is under way, the force also said.
Arrangements had been made for a postmortem examination to be conducted on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the journalist’s family said: “We note the statement from the RPG today about David, particularly the assertion that ‘there are no specific concerns at this time with regard to the death’. We do not wish to say anything further while the authorities continue their investigations and ask that the family’s privacy be respected.”
A counter-terrorism policing spokesperson said that a request to UK police had been received from the Royal Gibraltar police to assist with the investigation.
“Due to the existing capability and experience of dealing with international inquiries, support to the RGP is being provided by officers from counter-terrorism policing,” they added.
“Primacy for the investigation remains with RGP and any further inquiries in relation to this should be directed to them.”
In Gibraltar on Thursday, a routine meeting of an official committee which oversees security and civil contingency decided that there was no reason to raise the terror threat level.
The Gibraltar government said that the Gibraltar contingency council (GCC), which was due to meet before the death of Knowles, discussed the wider impact of conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as recent terrorist activity in Europe.
“The GCC assessed that there was no change to the current moderate terrorism threat level, with an attack remaining possible but not likely,” according to a statement issued by the Gibraltar government.
Tributes were paid to Knowles in parliament earlier on Thursday by the Labour MP and new chair of the justice committee, Andy Slaughter, who called for a debate on the importance of investigative and public interest journalism.
Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons, joined Slaughter in sending condolences to the journalist’s family.
“He’s absolutely right – investigative journalism is so important to our democracy, and we should do whatever we can as a country to support it,” she added.
