Daniel Khalife left package intended for Iranian agents in Turkey, trial told

A former British soldier accused of spying for Iran stole UK military secrets “to order” and travelled to Turkey, where he left a package intended for Iranian intelligence agents, his trial has been told.

Messages said to have been between Daniel Khalife and his alleged foreign handlers while he was serving in the army were shown in court, including one in which the alleged handlers said: “We look forward to seeing you in Tehran … pal.”

Khalife – who was part of the Royal Corps of Signals, which provides communications, IT and cyber support – was alleged to have told a handler he planned to travel on to Tehran during a trip to Istanbul in 2020 under the cover of a holiday, but it had “gone sour”.

The 23-year-old, who is also accused of escaping from Wandsworth prison in south-west London last year, offered to work for Iran as a mole inside the British army for more than 25 years, the messages also suggested.

Messages sent via the encrypted Telegram messaging app between Khalife and an alleged Iranian handler, who was using the cover name David Smith, included one in which the latter said: “We can work together a lot of years.”

Khalife replied: “Absolutely, I won’t leave the military until you tell me to … 25+ years.”

Day two of his trial was told that he had stolen sensitive UK military cryptography material and took photographs of sophisticated communications equipment used by British special forces.

Material that Khalife had come to possess included a spreadsheet containing extensive details relating to UK military personnel, including special forces, such as identities and promotions.

After allegedly asking Iranian handlers to tell him which specific UK military units they were interested in, Khalife allegedly compiled a list providing details about a range of soldiers from British special forces units, including the SAS. The list, with Khalife’s handwriting on it, was shown to the court.

Mark Heywood KC, for the prosecution, said: “He was eliciting information of a kind which would be useful, for example, to someone hostile to the United Kingdom, for example a terrorist.”

The trial was also told that Iranian intelligence contact with Khalife “escalated” when he was deployed in early 2021 to Fort Hood, now called Fort Cavazos, an important US military base in Texas, where he was alleged to have continued taking photos and gathering intelligence.

The trial heard on Monday that Khalife was alleged to have contacted a well-known individual connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 2019, before picking up an envelope containing £1,500 that was left by his Iranian handlers in a dog poo bag in a park in north London.

Shortly after he passed his security clearance as a soldier, the court heard, pictures found on his iPhone showed he picked up the bag, which was decorated with paws and a bone, with an envelope inside it, and took a selfie.

The court heard that the following day, Khalife, whose mother is from Iran, took steps to get a new passport and later discussed booking a flight to Turkey and a hotel so that he could meet Iranian agents there, “because it needs to look like a holiday”, the jury heard.

Khalife flew to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines and stayed at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti hotel for six days until 10 August 2020. Images received from his phone showed him inside and outside the hotel, the court was told.

He is alleged to have later escaped from HMP Wandsworth while on remand on terrorism and espionage charges by strapping himself to the underside of a food delivery lorry on 6 September 2023.

Khalife faces a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence, contrary to the Official Secrets Act, between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022.

He is also alleged to have elicited or attempted to elicit personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism from a Ministry of Defence administration system on 2 August 2021.

He denies all of the charges and the trial continues.