Former British soldier who saw Iran sentenced to 14 years

An ex British soldier Condemned for spying on Iran after a bold three -day escape from a London prison was sentenced Monday to more than 14 years after bars for betraying his country.

Daniel Khalife23, was convicted in November for violating the Law of Official Secrets and the Law of Terrorism for providing restricted and classified material to Iran.

“When I was young, you had the creation of an exemplary soldier, however, through the repeated violations of your service oath, you showed yourself as a dangerous fool,” Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said.

The jury members in Woolwich Crown Court had rejected their testimony that I was trying to work for the United Kingdom as Double agent.

Khalife’s espionage case had not received much attention until he left Wandsworth’s prison on the belly of a food cast truck. He was fleeing for three days before the police arrested him by bicycle by a channel in London.

Khalife declared himself guilty of the escape during his judgment, but continued to dispute the espionage charges.

Khalife’s lawyer, who argued that his acts were more like a plot of “Scooby Doo” than a James Bond thriller, said his client had only transmitted imprecise information, including “ridiculously false” documents that did not cause real damage.

“There is no way that what Mr. Khalife did will end up being a lesson for the buds,” said lawyer Gul Nawaz Hussain. “Their intentions were not sinister or cynical.”

But prosecutors said that Khalife had played, in fact, a “cynical game” when he wanted to be a spy after having delivered a large amount of restricted and classified material to the Iranian intelligence service, including the names of the officers of the officers of the Special forces.

Khalife testified that he had been in contact with people in the Iranian government, but that everything was part of a ploy ultimately work as a double agent for Great Britain, a scheme that he developed when he saw the television program “Homeland”.

The authorities said it presented a true risk to national security due to the threat I will possess. Police said the United Kingdom He had interrupted 20 plots of Iran, including murder plans.

British security services did not know Khalife’s contacts with the Iranians until he contacted MI6, the United Kingdom Foreign intelligence service, to offer to work as a double agent.

He approached Mi6 Anonymously, saying that he had earned the confidence of his Iranian handlers and that they had rewarded him leaving $ 2,000 in cash ($ 1,578 pounds) in a dog poop bag in a park in northern London.

Khalife joined the army at age 16 and was assigned to the Royal Corps of Signals, a communications unit that unfolds with battlefield troops, special forces and intelligence squads.

They told him that he could not join the intelligence service because his mother was from Iran.

At age 17, he approached a man connected to Iranian intelligence and began transmitting information, prosecutors said. He was given a NATO The secret authorization of security when joined by a joint exercise in Fort Cavazos in Texas in early 2021.

The judge pointed out that their security violations while they are on American soil could have caused diplomatic damage.

Khalife’s escape from the Victoriana era caught attention to larger failures in the aged and superpoblado correctional system of the nation. A consultation is currently being made on how Khalife could escape and if others helped.

Two men have been arrested for charges to help him after he escaped.