UK convicts ex-soldier of spying for Iran

A former British soldier who escaped from an English prison was found guilty, this Thursday (28), by a UK court of violating official secrets and terrorism legislation by collecting sensitive information to transmit it to secret agents in Iran. .

Daniel Khalife, 23 years old, from Kingston (south London), was acquitted, however, by the London court in Woolwich of having been responsible for detonating a fake bomb in a military barracks where he served, another of the charges against him.

Throughout the judicial process, which will culminate in a sentence early next year, the prosecution maintained that Khalife, whose mother was Iranian and father Lebanese, played a “cynical game” by stating that he wanted to pursue a career as a double agent to help the British Intelligence Service when in fact it was collecting “a lot of restricted and classified material”.

The man previously admitted he escaped from Wandsworth prison by hiding under a food supply truck, where he was on remand accused of handling secret information, including a list of the identities of soldiers from this country, and handing it over to spies. Iranians.

The British intelligence service MI5, the Ministry of Defense and counter-terrorism police opened a nationwide search operation to locate this individual, which raised fears that Khalife might try to flee to Tehran or gain access to the Iranian embassy in London.

As found out at the trial, while he was on the run, the former soldier bought a cell phone that he used to make calls using a code name, David Smith, and send the message: “I wait”.

However, Khalife was arrested on September 9 while riding a stolen bike in west London, around 14 miles from Wandsworth prison.

The first time the former soldier contacted an Iranian spy was shortly after joining the British Army, when he was just 16 years old, and then said he wanted to work as a “double agent”.

When he testified in court, Khalife described himself as an English “patriot” and said he was “neither a terrorist nor a traitor”.

However, he was found guilty of one count of collecting, publishing or communicating information that could be useful to an enemy between May 1, 2019 and January 6, 2022, under official secrets legislation.

Khalife was also found guilty of obtaining private information about British armed forces personnel that could be potentially useful to people committing or preparing acts of terrorism, in relation to a photograph of a handwritten list of names of 15 British soldiers, including some of the special forces operating for the Special Air Service (SAS) and the Special Boat Service (SBS).