At his trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Daniel Khalife, a former British soldier who has been accused of spying for Iran and escaping from prison, has declared his love for his country and his opposition to the Iranian regime. Khalife denies the charges against him, which allege that he collected sensitive military information for Iran and later hid under a food truck to escape Wandsworth prison. When he was 17, Khalife said he contacted Iranian intelligence on social media platforms Facebook and Telegram, sending them “fake” documents and receiving a “dead drop” of £1,500 in a dog poo bag in return. Khalife claims that he wanted to expose Iranian intelligence officers working in the United Kingdom.
In court, jurors were shown a page from one of Khalife’s notebooks, in which the word ‘spying’ was written, followed by ”contact Iranians then USA.” Khalife explained to the court that his plan was to “contact a foreign enemy, to give them fictitious information, to build a rapport with that enemy”. He testified that he read an article about a US servicewoman who defected to Iran and contacted the same organisation that was accused of recruiting her, the New Horizon Organisation. Khalife reached out to its secretary, Hamed Ghashghavi, a man who has been sanctioned by the US. He described deceiving Mr Ghashghavi with a fake document to build trust with him, stating that “I wanted to build a level of trust with an individual that I thought was attached at least in some way to the Iranian Intelligence apparatus”.
Khalife told the court that Iranians wanted him to travel to Iran after they dropped off £1,500 cash in a dog poo bag to him, but he refused on the grounds that his passport had expired. He did not think it was safe to travel to a state that is “extremely hostile” to the UK. Khalife also detailed his poor background and how his mother detests the Iranian regime. When he was caught shoplifting, his mother took him to Iran to show him how people lived in four weeks, but he hated it. “The weather, the government, everything,” he said. When he was 16, Khalife joined the Army because he wanted to get away from home and show people that being from an Iranian and Lebanese family doesn’t mean he cannot serve his country.
Previously, jurors saw CCTV footage of Khalife in different places while allegedly on the run from prison. Prosecutors claim he sent messages on Telegram to an account linked to Iranian intelligence, including a message that read “I wait.” Khalife denies escaping from prison and the charges against him under the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act.
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