Former soldier Daniel Khalife has been discovered responsible of spying for Iran, however cleared of finishing up a bomb hoax.
The 23-year-old, who beforehand admitted to escaping from jail, was accused of amassing secret info and passing it to brokers of the Center Jap nation whereas serving within the Royal Corps of Indicators.
Prosecutors advised the ex-soldier’s trial he performed “a cynical sport”, claiming he needed a profession as a double agent to assist the British Intelligence Providers, when in actual fact he gathered “a really massive physique of restricted and categorised materials” – whereas police described him because the “final Walter Mitty character that was having a big affect on the actual world”.
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On Thursday, after 23 hours of deliberation, a jury at Woolwich Crown Court docket convicted Khalife of breaching the Official Secrets and techniques Act and Terrorism Act, however acquitted him of perpetrating a bomb hoax.
The defendant, sporting a blue shirt and pale trousers, calmly changed his glasses because the verdicts had been learn out, and didn’t present any emotion.
He had pleaded responsible partway by way of his trial to escaping from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London in September 2023 by clinging to the underside of a meals supply truck utilizing a sling created from kitchen trousers.
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Khalife’s trial heard he created and handed on faux paperwork supposedly from MPs, senior navy officers and the safety providers – but additionally despatched real military paperwork.
Having reached out to a “middle-man” by sending him a Fb message, Khalife advised the Iranians he would keep undercover within the British Military for “25-plus years” for them, having joined in 2018 two weeks earlier than his seventeenth birthday.
In 2021, Khalife secretly gathered the names of serving troopers, together with these within the particular forces. He took a photograph of a handwritten checklist of 15 of them, having been despatched an inner spreadsheet of promotions in June 2021. Prosecutors consider he despatched the checklist to Iran earlier than deleting any proof.
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After his arrest, he advised police he had needed to supply himself to UK safety businesses all alongside, having emailed MI6 as early as 2019.
Khalife advised jurors he needed to show bosses mistaken after being advised his Iranian heritage might cease him working in navy intelligence, and got here up along with his elaborate double agent plot after watching the TV spy thriller Homeland.
Khalife’s barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, stated his double agent plot was “hapless” and “generally bordering on the slapstick”, extra “Scooby-Doo” than James Bond or Homeland.
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Prosecutors additionally alleged Khalife ready a bomb hoax at his Staffordshire barracks in January 2023. However the trial heard how a soldier who arrived within the room pulled wires out of the system to show it was not actual. A bomb disposal unit was solely referred to as after police attended and seemed on the system a number of days later, the courtroom was advised.
The previous soldier had pleaded responsible to escaping HMP Wandsworth earlier this month.
Whereas on the run, he purchased garments from Marks & Spencer and a espresso from McDonald’s, whereas he stole a hat from a Mountain Warehouse retailer. He walked alongside the River Thames and began utilizing a bicycle he discovered earlier than being caught by police three days later.
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The officer who captured Khalife on a canal towpath in west London on 9 September 2023, described the prisoner as “jovial” and advised jurors he “congratulated me on catching him”.
Khalife made one final try and contact the Iranians earlier than he was discovered, sending a Telegram message which stated merely: “I wait.”
Concern he would attempt an identical stunt throughout his trial was so excessive that in his proof, he was dropped at and from the witness field in handcuffs.
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Khalife advised his trial that the rationale he escaped was within the hope he could be saved in a high-security unit (HSU) at a unique jail, HMP Belmarsh, away from “intercourse offenders” and “terrorists” after his recapture.
Khalife’s jailbreak shone a light-weight on the “surprising” stage of chaos at HMP Wandsworth, with the prisons watchdog describing it as “symbolic of the issues that characterise what’s worst concerning the English jail system”.
Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, stated of Khalife’s crimes: “Ego is an element, I’ve received little doubt he’s received an uncanny capability to govern others. I feel he in all probability loved the joys of deception all through.”
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The previous soldier shall be sentenced early subsequent 12 months.
Khalife’s actions might have put navy personnel’s lives in danger and “prejudiced” the UK’s nationwide safety, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated.
Bethan David, from the CPS, stated: “As a serving soldier of the British Military Daniel Khalife was employed and entrusted to uphold and defend the nationwide safety of this nation. However, for functions of his personal, Daniel Khalife used his employment to undermine nationwide safety.
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“It’s in opposition to the legislation to collate and share secret and delicate info for a objective in opposition to the pursuits of the UK. Such hostile and unlawful actions jeopardise the nationwide safety of the UK, and the CPS will at all times search to prosecute anybody that carries out counter state threats.”
Sir Keir Starmer “welcomes the decision and that justice has been served”, Downing Road stated.
Requested whether or not the prime minister was involved Iran had managed to recruit a British soldier, his spokesman added: “We’ve at all times been very clear that the behaviour of the Iranian regime poses a menace to the protection and safety of the UK and our allies.
“This was an remoted incident, however we take these incidents extraordinarily critically, and extra broadly, it’s why we proceed to take robust motion and maintain the Iranian regime to account.”
