Former UK soldier accused of helping Iran said he wanted to be double agent

A British soldier passed sensitive information to people linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and later broke out of prison, sparking a nationwide manhunt, prosecutors told a London court on Tuesday.

Daniel Abed Khalife collected “sensitive and sometimes secret” information for more than two years between May 2019 and January 2022 and then claimed he did so to become a double agent, prosecutor Mark Heywood told jurors.

Later Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, was accused of leaving a fake bomb on a desk and absconding from his barracks in 2023 before he was arrested and held in custody pending trial.

He then escaped from prison last September, Heywood added, prompting an “intense and nationwide search.”

The 23-year-old is standing trial at Woolwich Crown Court charged with collecting information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iran – an offence under the Official Secrets Act.

Khalife is also charged with obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism, perpetrating a bomb hoax and escaping from custody. He denies all the charges.

Heywood said Khalife joined the army just before his 17th birthday in 2018 and passed a security check in early 2019, eventually joining the signals corp.

“Mr Khalife had no real intention to simply get his head down, learn his trade and become what he considered to be a mere army signaler,” the prosecutor told the jury.

“Even during the early stage of his learning, while still 17, he was beginning to entertain thoughts about espionage.”

Heywood said Khalife told police after he had been arrested in 2022 that he first made contact with someone connected with the IRGC and that he was “trying to engage in a double bluff.”

The prosecutor added that Khalife said he had picked up around 1,500 pounds ($2,000) in a dog waste bag from a park in north London in August 2019 on instructions from his handler.

Khalife then anonymously emailed Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service two weeks later, saying: “The reason why I agreed to do this is because I want to work as a double agent for the security service.”

Heywood told jurors they would have to think about Khalife’s “true purpose” and said the prosecution’s case was that it was misleading.

The trial continues.

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