Khalife was sentenced on Thursday for, among other things, providing the Iranian regime with the names of soldiers in British special forces. The court held that Khalife collected and shared sensitive information that in the wrong hands would pose a danger to the nation.
Bethan David, head of the UK Attorney General’s Office’s counter-terrorism unit, said that as a soldier, Khalife was “entrusted with maintaining and protecting the country’s national security. For his own purposes, Daniel Khalife instead used his employment to undermine it”.
She added that the procedure posed a life-threatening danger to the soldiers whose names Khalife leaked to Iran.
In total, the names of 15 soldiers are said to have ended up in Iran’s hands. Daniel Khalife himself denied having sent the information to Iran and said that most of the information was wrong anyway. The messages, which were sent on Telegram, are now deleted.
Played a cynical game
British prosecutors believe that Khalife’s actions were “cynical”. In 2018, shortly after enlisting, he is said to have contacted a man with connections to Iran’s intelligence service on Facebook. After that, he is said to have called a meeting with MI6 about becoming a double agent.
Khalife’s defense lawyer Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, on the other hand, believes that the double game was rather unfortunate and more “Scooby-Doo than James Bond”.
Performed spectacular escape
In January 2023, Khalife was arrested after fleeing his military base in Stafford when he realized he was likely to be prosecuted for leaking classified information to a foreign power. By then he had been spying for Iran for almost five years.
However, in September, while awaiting trial, Khalife managed to escape from the London prison by strapping himself under a truck that was making food deliveries to and from the institution. The escape led to a large police manhunt, before Khalife could be recaptured 75 hours after the escape.
The BBC reports that Khalife showed no emotion when the verdict was handed down on Thursday. Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb says Khalife will receive a long prison sentence when the sentence is handed down early next year.
Khalife, however, was acquitted of the charge of sending a false bomb threat to his former military base.