UK court convicts former soldier of passing intelligence to Iran
Daniel Abed Khalife, who joined army at 16, claimed he was inspired by TV show Homeland to work as double agent.
A wanted sign featuring an image of Daniel Abed Khalife, a former soldier found guilty of passing on information to Iran, is displayed near London’s Wandsworth Prison after an escape attempt in 2023 [File: Anna Gordon/Reuters]Published On 28 Nov 202428 Nov 2024
A former British soldier has been convicted of passing on sensitive information to people connected with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
On Thursday, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court in London found Daniel Abed Khalife guilty of breaching the United Kingdom’s Official Secrets Act and the Terrorism Act after delivering classified material, including the names of special forces officers, to Iran between May 2019 and January 2022.
The 23-year-old testified in court that he had been in touch with people in the Iranian government, but that it was all part of a ploy to ultimately work as a double agent for the UK, a scheme allegedly inspired by the hit TV show Homeland.
Khalife maintained he was a patriot and that he and his family hated the Iranian government. “Me and my family are against the regime in Iran,” he told the jury.
Prosecutors said the defendant, who had anonymously emailed the British foreign intelligence service MI6 saying he wanted to be a spy, had played a “cynical game”.
Khalife, who served as a computer engineer in the army, had also been charged with leaving a fake bomb on a desk before absconding from his barracks in January 2023, but the jury found him not guilty of perpetrating a bomb hoax.
The defendant made national headlines after he escaped from London’s Wandsworth Prison in September 2023, attaching himself to the bottom of a truck using a makeshift sling made from kitchen trousers and carabiners.
He was arrested three days later on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in West London after a nationwide manhunt.
Recalling the jailbreak in court, Khalife said he had been demonstrating his “skillset” in a bid to convince the authorities that it was “foolish” to keep him in prison.
Khalife, who is of Iranian and Lebanese extraction, joined the Royal Corps of Signals, a specialist unit providing communications, IT and cyber support to the army, at the age of 16.
Police described Khalife as a fantasist and amateurish in his approach, but said he had a serious adverse effect on British interests.