February 03, (THEWILL) – A former British soldier, Daniel Khalife, who escaped from Wandsworth prison while awaiting trial for spying for Iran has been jailed for 14 years and three months.
Khalife, from Kingston, in southwest London, joined the Army at age 16 and then contacted an Iranian middleman through Facebook.
Giving evidence, he said he wanted to prove himself after a senior officer told him he would not be able to work in intelligence because his mother was born in Iran.
Khalife, who was a lance corporal in the Royal Signals, was accused of using his role in the military to pass secret information to Iranian spies. He was arrested after telling the British security services he wanted to be a “double agent” and claimed he had cultivated the relationship over more than two years in the national interest.
But he was found guilty of a charge under the Official Secrets Act and another under the Terrorism Act at the end of last year at Woolwich Crown Court, having admitted escaping from lawful custody part-way through his trial.
The 23-year-old had in September 2024, escaped from prison. He evaded capture for three days before he was re-arrested.
During the sentencing on Monday, Justice Cheema-Grubb told Khalife, “When you joined the Army as a young man, you had the makings of an exemplary soldier. However, through the repeated violation of your oath of service, you showed yourself to be, instead, a dangerous fool. You embarked on the course of conduct I have described because of a selfish desire to show off, to achieve by unregulated means what you were told would be difficult for you to achieve by conventional promotion.
“The mere fact that you started on this dangerous and fantastical plan demonstrates your immaturity and lack of wisdom, that you thought it was appropriate to insert yourself – an unauthorised, unqualified and uninformed junior soldier – into communication with an enemy state is perhaps the clearest indication of the degree of folly in your failure to understand at the most obvious level the risk you posed.
“The greater mischief in your offending is that, having failed to engage any response from the intelligence services of the United Kingdom, you continued betraying your country and exposed others to the possibility of harm.”
