Daniel Khalife, a former British soldier, is currently on trial at Woolwich Crown Court on charges of collecting sensitive military information for Iran as well as allegedly escaping from Wandsworth Prison last year. Mr. Khalife has denied all the charges, and in court yesterday, he claimed that he made up much of the sensitive information he sent to Iran. His jury heard audio messages in which an Iranian man appears to thank him for his work over four years, and seems to be helping Mr Khalife to get an Iranian passport. However, the prosecution has alleged that Mr. Khalife first contacted the Iranians aged 17, soon after he had joined the army.
During the trial at Woolwich Crown Court, the jury heard from Soldier A, who worked in intelligence, and said information gathered by the ex-soldier could have proved a “beneficial start point to a hostile adversary”. According to a transcript of a police interview read to the court, Mr. Khalife denied passing the list to anyone. He has been accused under the Official Secret Act and the Terrorism Act, and of escaping from prison.
Some documents found included one marked “Top Secret. Secret Intelligence Service MI6” that Mr. Khalife claimed was entirely made-up. According to him, names, and everything in the particular document was quickly typed up by him. Some of the other documents, Mr Khalife allegedly admitted, had also been made up using information from Wikileaks and his personal knowledge of the Middle East.
The trial has been ongoing since Mr. Khalife was first arrested in January 2022 after he contacted MI6 and MI5 saying he wanted to be a double agent. The prosecution says that from a mobile phone that the police only recovered in September 2023, forensic specialists discovered six audio messages that were sent to Mr. Khalife on the messaging app Telegram in May 2022, after he was arrested but was still on police bail. The messages were played in court
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