A British soldier who is alleged of being an Iranian spy wanted to be a “double agent” for MI6, a court has heard.
Daniel Khalife, who escaped from Wandsworth Prison last year, is on trial for espionage for Iran and obtaining confidential information regarding members of the Armed Forces from internal personnel systems.
The 23-year-old Teddington-born ex-soldier said that he had informed security services that he had agreed to give the Iranian government information. However, later, he told police he was trying to “sell himself” to the Secret Intelligence Service and that it was a “double bluff”.
He denies all four charges brought against him.
The ex-soldier is accused of escaping HMP Wandsworth by strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery lorry in September 2023, causing a nationwide manhunt for the inmate
PA Media
Woolwich Crown Court has heard that Khalife thought about espionage since he was 17 and had sought out Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, which is part of the nation’s Armed Forces and is responsible for foreign intelligence gathering.
British-born Khalife is also accused of escaping Wandsworth prison by strapping himself to the bottom of a food delivery lorry in September 2023, causing a nationwide manhunt for the inmate. The Met Police caught him three days later in Chiswick, west London.
The prosecutor went on to tell the court that Khalife flew to Istanbul in 2020, who had initially planned to travel to Iran.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC said that Khalife had been in communication with Iran agents, with most “information of a kind relevant to the work of the Armed Forces of this country, and so which might well be useful to her enemies”.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
He said: “Over a period of more than two years, the defendant collected and made digital records, but also sometimes in paper form, of a large quantity of information of that kind.
“All the while he was a serving soldier in the British Army, employed therefore to uphold and to protect the national security of this country.”
Mark Heywood KC added further that allegations concerned “surreptitious gathering and communication with foreign agents of sensitive, sometimes secret information”.
Jurors have heard that the defendant was contacted by an Iranian government-associated group New Horizon, and later collected £1,500 in a dog poo bag in a north London park in 2019 and collected another £1,000 in North Kensington over two years later in 2021. Heywood explained that Iran is considered a “real threat to security” and is one of the few state actors which threatens the UK.
Defendant Daniel Khalife has previously been charged with escaping HMP Wandsworth prison
PA Media
Khalife joined the British Army just before he turned 17 and was based at Beacon Barracks, Staffordshire.
A third charge against the defendant includes a third “bomb hoax offence” in January 2023, which has alleged that Khalife left canisters in his accommodation, which might lead people to believe it could explode or ignite.
Additionally, he is charged with eliciting or attempting to elicit information helpful to individuals committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.
The case continues and is expected to last six months.
