Former Staffordshire soldier Daniel Khalife found guilty of spying for Iran

Daniel Khalife, 23, “exposed military personnel to serious harm” by collecting sensitive information while serving in the British Army and passing it on to agents of the Middle Eastern country.

He was paid cash for the classified information collected and administrators were told that he would remain in the army for more than 25 years for them.

Prosecutors said he played a “cynical game” at his trial, claiming he wanted to pursue a career as a double agent to help the British Intelligence Services when in fact he collected “a huge amount of restricted and classified material”.

Jurors on Thursday Woolwich Crown Court It found that Khalife had violated the Official Secrets and Terrorism Laws.

He was cleared of making a bomb fraud in his home Staffordshire barracks He had already admitted to running away in January 2023 Wandsworth prison.

Wearing a blue shirt and light-colored trousers, the Caliph calmly put on his glasses and did not show any signs of emotion as the verdicts were read.

Police described him as “the ultimate Walter Mitty character with a significant impact on the real world.”

Khalife created and distributed fake documents, supposedly from members of parliament, senior military officials and security services, but also sent genuine army documents.

Approached by a Facebook message to an “intermediary”, Khalife told the Iranians he would serve undercover in the British Army on their behalf for “more than 25 years”.

He joined the British Army in 2018, two weeks before his 17th birthday, and served in the Royal Corps of Signals.

The Caliph secretly collected the names of soldiers who served in 2021, including those who served in special forces.

She took a photo of a handwritten list of 15 people who were sent an internal promotion spreadsheet in June 2021.

Prosecutors believe he sent the list to Iran before deleting any evidence.

Following his arrest, he told police he wanted to offer himself to UK security agencies by emailing MI6 as early as 2019.

Khalife told jurors he wanted to prove bosses wrong after being told his Iranian heritage could prevent him from working in military intelligence and came up with the elaborate double agent plot after watching TV spy thriller Homeland.

He made an anonymous call to MI5’s public reporting line in November 2021, admitting he had been in contact with Iran for more than two years.

He offered to help British security services and said he wanted to return to his normal life.

His lawyer told the court that if Khalife had not contacted MI5 to tell them about his involvement with Iran, neither they nor the police would have known about it.

Defending, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC said the double agent plot was “unfortunate” and “at times bordered on a joke”, more “Scooby-Doo” than James Bond or Homeland.

Prosecutors said Khalife had prepared a hoax bomb, but the trial heard how a soldier who came into the room removed cables from the device to prove it wasn’t real.

The bomb disposal unit was only called in after police intervened and inspected the device a few days later.

In September 2023, he escaped from HMP Wandsworth, a category B prison in south-west London, by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

Five days before his successful escape, he attached a hanger made of kitchen trousers and carabiners to the underside of a truck.

While Balazs Werner, the driver of the Mercedes truck, was leaving the prison, two guards checked the vehicle with “torch and mirror” and said that a person was missing in the prison.

When the guards told him he could drive, he was surprised that the prison wasn’t on lockdown and asked, “Are you sure?” he asked. but they were allowed out of the prison gates.

While on the run, Khalife bought clothes from Marks & Spencer, coffee from McDonald’s and walked along the River Thames.

He made one last attempt to contact the Iranians before he was captured, sending a message on Telegram that simply read “I’m waiting.”

Concerns that he would try a similar stunt during his trial were so high that he was handcuffed and led away to the witness stand during testimony.

Khalife told his trial that he escaped in the hope that after he was recaptured he would be held in a separate high-security unit at HMP Belmarsh, away from “sex offenders” and “terrorists”.

Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, said of Khalife’s crimes: “Ego is a factor, I have no doubt that he has an uncanny ability to manipulate others. I think he was enjoying the thrill of cheating all the way through.”

Bethan David, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As a soldier serving in the British Army, Daniel Khalife was recruited and commissioned to maintain and protect the national security of this country. However, Daniel Khalife used his job to undermine national security for his own purposes.

“He secretly sought and obtained copies of classified and sensitive information that he knew was protected and passed them on to individuals he believed were acting on behalf of the Iranian state. “Sharing the information could expose military personnel to serious harm or risk to life and could harm the safety and security of the United Kingdom.”

Downing Street said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the decision.

Asked whether he was concerned that Iran had managed to recruit a British soldier, an official spokesman added: “We have always been very clear that the Iranian regime’s behavior poses a threat to the safety and security of the UK and our allies.

“This was an isolated incident, but we take these incidents extremely seriously, and that’s why we continue to take strong action more generally and hold the Iranian regime accountable.”

The former soldier will be sentenced early next year and faces a lengthy prison sentence.