Daniel Khalife: Ex-soldier ‘contacted Iran before claiming it was double-bluff’

A former British soldier accused of escaping from prison made contact with Iranian security forces before contacting MI6 to say he wanted to work as a “double agent”, his trial has heard.

Daniel Khalife, 23, is accused of collecting secret information and passing it to “agents of Iran”.

He told police he had made contact with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, but later said he had intended to sell himself to the UK security agencies, the jury was told.

The former soldier contacted MI6 in 2019, claiming he wanted to work as a “double agent” for the service, the court heard.

After his arrest, Khalife is alleged to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth in south London while on remand, by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry on September 6 2023.

Khalife may have begun to think about espionage as early as March 2019, the opening of his trial at Woolwich Crown Court heard.

In September 2018, two weeks before his 17th birthday, he joined the British Army as a junior soldier, completing a 23-week course at the Army Foundation College, at Harrogate in North Yorkshire, jurors heard.

Khalife, who was brought up in Kingston, south London, by his Iranian mother, decided to join the Royal Corps of Signals which provides communications, IT and cyber support, the court was told.

Before moving to Blandford Forum, in Dorset, for his specialist training in 2019, Khalife underwent and passed security clearance, giving him access to secret information, the trial heard.

The soldier completed his year-long course in early 2020, and was posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford, the jury was told.

In April 2019, he created a contact with the +98 dialling code for Iran from the UK, his trial was told.

When interviewed by police in January 2022, the soldier said he made contact with a well-known individual connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the court heard.

“His aim in doing so was clearly to offer himself as an asset to Iran’s external security apparatus,” prosecutor Mark Heywood KC said.

“The prosecution case is that he began a process of obtaining, recording and communicating material, information of a kind that might be or was intended be useful to an enemy of the UK,” Mr Heywood continued.

Kahlife also told the police that in due course he had been transferred to an English speaking handler.

But the soldier later claimed the affair had been an elaborate double-bluff, and that he intended to sell himself to the UK security agencies, the jury heard.

“Mr Khalife said that he actively pursued that relationship, although what he came to say to the police was that all the while he was trying to engage in a double bluff, in reality, he said he was involved in an attempt to be able to sell himself to the UK security agencies,” Mr Heywood said.

“It will be for you to say whether his motives were simply mixed or whether he was playing a cynical kind of game,” the prosecutor told jurors.

He later sent a message under a false name to MI6 using the “contact us” page of their website, claiming he wanted to work as a “double agent” for the service, the court heard.

His email said he had been asked to provide the Iranian government with information, and had sent them a fake document for which they paid him 2,000 US dollars (£1,500) left in a “dog waste bag” in Mill Hill Park, the trial was told.

The jury was shown a selfie of Khalife taken in the north London park, and a photo of an envelope inside a dog waste bag.

After police caught up with him and he had been released on bail, Khalife absconded from his barracks, leaving cannisters and wires on his desk intended to look like an explosive device, jurors were told.

He is alleged to have later escaped from HMP Wandsworth in south London while on remand on terror and espionage charges by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry on September 6 2023.

He faces a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence, contrary to the Official Secrets Act between May 1 2019 and January 6 2022.

He is also alleged to have elicited or attempted to elicit personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism from a Ministry of Defence administration system on August 2 2021.

He denies all of the charges.

The trial, before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, is expected to last about six weeks.