A former soldier accused of escaping from Wandsworth prison has told a jury he offered to spy for Iran to further British national security interests, insisting: “I’m a patriot and I love my country.”
Daniel Khalife, 23, is alleged to have collected and passed secrets to the hostile state soon after taking up his post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire.
He sparked a nationwide manhunt after using a sling made of knotted bedsheets to cling on to the underside of a food delivery lorry to break out of the prison on the morning of 6 September last year, Woolwich Crown Court has heard.
Giving evidence for the first time at his trial, Khalife, wearing a white shirt and chinos, told jurors he joined the army aged 16 because he “wanted to be a real soldier, to go to war”.
“I’m a patriot and I love my country,” he said.
Khalife, whose mother is from Iran and father from Lebanon, said he wanted to work in intelligence but was left “devastated” after his troop commander told him he wouldn’t pass vetting because of his family background.
“I didn’t really want to give up,” he said. “There’s a solution to every problem”.
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“I wanted to be in a position of use to my country. I wanted to utilise my background to further our national security interests.”
He said he formed a plan to begin “spying” while he was still only 17, contacting a sanctioned Iranian through Facebook before being put in touch with intelligence officers.
Khalife, who is well-spoken, at one point describing himself as “overly loquacious”, told jurors he launched an “operation” to “contact a foreign enemy” and “provide them with fictitious information to build a rapport”.
He said he wanted to “be in a position to contact our own intelligence services to spread disinformation with the purpose of furthering our national security interests” and “expose Iranian intelligence officers working within the UK”.
“There was no nefarious intent, and I harboured no intent to harm our national security, nor did I,” he added.
Khalife said the Iranians wanted to know about agents working for British intelligence in Iran so he created a fake document to suggest he had access to such information.
“I remember they were extremely pleased with this document,” he said.
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Khalife said he had been told it had been “agreed at the highest levels a sum of money would be delivered” for “travel” to Iran, with a “more substantial sum” to be delivered on arrival.
The court heard he picked up £1,500 in a dog poo bag under a bin in Mill Hill park, in north London, in August 2019.
The court has previously heard Khalife later contacted the British security services saying he wanted to be a “double agent”, but MI5 eventually reported him to police.
Born in Marylebone, central London, Khalife went to school in Teddington, southwest London, where he said he was quite popular but not the most academic person.
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He said his mother took him to Iran for four weeks when he was 15 after he was caught shoplifting with a group of friends after realising powerful magnets could be used to remove security tags in a physics lesson.
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“Every day I was in that country I wanted to come back. I hated it. I thought it was a horrible place – the weather, the police, everything. It’s an incredibly corrupt country,” he said.
‘Against the regime in Iran’
“To this day, I don’t think I have met a single person who lives outside of Iran who’s not hostile to the government.
“My mother detests the regime, probably the country as well, and that goes for the entirety of my family. She’s not religious in any way. No one in my family is.
“Me and my family are against the regime in Iran.”
Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, was arrested on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt three days after he allegedly escaped from Wandsworth prison.
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He denies a charge of committing an act prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state under the Official Secrets Act between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.
He has also pleaded not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act of eliciting information about armed forces personnel on 2 August 2021, perpetrating a bomb hoax on or before 2 January 2023 and escaping from prison on 6 September last year.
The trial continues.
