Ex-Army Soldier Daniel Khalife Guilty of Spying for Iran

Daniel Abed Khalife, who escaped from Wandsworth prison in London on Sept. 6, 2023, in an undated file photo. Courtesy of Metropolitan Police

A former British Army soldier who escaped from prison and went on the run for three days has been found guilty of spying for Iran.

Daniel Khalife, 23, was serving in the Royal Corps of Signals when he “exposed military personnel to serious harm” by collecting sensitive information and passing it to agents of the Middle Eastern country.

On Thursday, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court found British-born Khalife, who has Lebanese and Iranian heritage, had breached the Official Secrets and Terrorism Acts.

He was cleared of carrying out a bomb hoax and had already admitted escaping from Wandsworth prison.

‘Ultimate Walter Mitty Character’

Khalife, who signed up for the army in 2018 two weeks before his 17th birthday, was paid in cash for the intelligence he gathered and told handlers he would stay in the military for “25-plus years.”

After undergoing initial Army training, he became a private in the Royal Signals Regiment, based at MOD Stafford. The facility is home to some of the British military’s most sophisticated technology and communications operations and includes the Defence Electronics and Components Agency.

Prosecutors told his trial he played “a cynical game“ in claiming he wanted a career as a double agent to help the British Intelligence Services, when in fact he gathered “a very large body of restricted and classified material” for the benefit of Iran.

Police described him as the “ultimate Walter Mitty character that was having a significant impact on the real world,“ although his defence lawyer claimed his actions were ”more Scooby Doo than James Bond.”

Khalife created and passed on fake documents supposedly from MPs, senior military officials, and the security services, but also sent genuine army documents, having approached a “middle-man” by sending him a Facebook message.

Gathered Special Forces Names

In 2021, Khalife secretly gathered the names of serving soldiers, including those in the special forces. He took a photo of a handwritten list of 15 of them, having been sent an internal spreadsheet of promotions in June 2021.

Prosecutors believe he sent the list to his handlers before deleting any evidence.

After his arrest, he told police he had wanted to offer himself to UK security agencies all along, having emailed MI6 as early as 2019 through the organisation’s public website.

CCTV footage of Daniel Khalife walking past the White Cross Pub in Richmond, London, on Sept. 6, 2023, which was shown to a jury at the Old Bailey, London, during his trial in October 2024. Metropolitan Police/PA

Khalife told jurors he wanted to prove bosses wrong after being told his Iranian heritage could stop him working in military intelligence, and cooked up his elaborate double agent plot after watching the TV spy thriller “Homeland.”

In November 2021, he made an anonymous call to the MI5 public reporting line, confessing to being in contact with Iran for more than two years.

He offered to help the British security services, claiming he wanted to return to his previous, normal life.

If Khalife had not contacted MI5, neither they nor the police would ever have known about his contact with Iran, his barrister told the court.

He was arrested in January 2022, and police seized various devices and documents from his room.

‘Bordering on Slapstick’

Gul Nawaz Hussain, KC, defending, said the double agent plot was “hapless” and “sometimes bordering on the slapstick,“ more “Scooby-Doo” than James Bond or ”Homeland.”

Prosecutors said Khalife prepared a bomb hoax at his Staffordshire barracks in January 2023, but the court heard how a soldier who arrived in the room pulled wires out of the device to show it was not real.

A bomb disposal unit was only called after police attended and looked at the device several days later.

While on remand in September 2023, he escaped from the category B prison HMP Wandsworth, in southwest London, by clinging to the underside of a food delivery truck.

While on the run, Khalife made one last attempt to contact the Iranians before he was caught, sending a Telegram message which said simply, “I wait.”

Concern that he would try a similar stunt during his trial was so high that during his evidence, he was taken to and from the witness box in handcuffs.

Khalife told his trial he escaped in the hope he would be kept in a segregated high-security unit at HMP Belmarsh, away from “sex offenders” and “terrorists” after his recapture.

‘Entrusted to Protect’ UK

Bethan David, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “As a serving soldier of the British Army, Daniel Khalife was employed and entrusted to uphold and protect the national security of this country.

“But, for purposes of his own, Daniel Khalife used his employment to undermine national security.”

Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said of Khalife’s crimes, “The threat to the UK from states such as Iran is very serious, so for a soldier in the Army to be sharing sensitive military material and information with them is extremely reckless and dangerous.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the verdict, a Downing Street spokesman said.

Asked whether he was concerned Iran had managed to recruit a British soldier, the spokesman added: “We’ve always been very clear that the behaviour of the Iranian regime poses a threat to the safety and security of the UK and our allies.

“This was an isolated incident but we take these incidents extremely seriously and, more broadly, it is why we continue to take strong action and hold the Iranian regime to account.”

The former soldier will be sentenced on Dec. 12 and is likely to receive a lengthy prison sentence.

PA Media contributed to this report.