Former soldier Daniel Khalife says arrest for spying was ‘like punch in the face’

A former soldier has told a jury it was like “being punched in the face” when he was arrested for spying for Iran, insisting: “I’m certainly not a terrorist or a traitor.”

Daniel Khalife, 23, sparked a nationwide manhunt when he escaped from Wandsworth prison, where he was being held on official secrets and terror charges, a court has heard.

Giving evidence for a second day, he said he thought the British intelligence services would be “impressed” and he would be “congratulated” over his contact with foreign agents.

Khalife, who joined the army aged 16, said he initiated the contact after his dreams of working in intelligence were shattered when he was told he couldn’t pass developed vetting because of his parent’s background.

Woolwich Crown Court has heard he made two cash pick-ups and travelled to Turkey, where he was told to get on a flight to Tehran.

But he told jurors he “purposefully sabotaged the operation” by coming up with excuses such as he was afraid of flying.

Khalife said his contact with the Iranians over more than two years involved him “spreading disinformation”, while they focussed on trying to get him to travel to Iran to be confirmed as an “asset”.

“I told them what they wanted to hear but didn’t give them what they wanted,” he said, explaining how he passed them fake or useless information.

Khalife, who took up a post with the Royal Signals, based in Beacons barracks, Staffordshire, and won the award for top junior soldier, said he thought he had collected a “significant amount of kompromat”.

The court had heard he contacted British security services saying he wanted to be a “double agent”.

Khalife told the jury he thought the British security services “would be impressed” he had “created a relationship on lies and false information and useless information”.

Asked if he thought he would be “congratulated”, he said: “Yes, I was a young lad and that’s what I thought.”

Khalife said: “I didn’t expect to be arrested and lose my career.”

He added: “It was a shock. I recall the day. I could never forget it. I remember my troop sergeant calling me to go to the location where the officers were. And it was like being punched in the face, really.”

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Khalife said he felt “scared”, “alone” and “suicidal” following his arrest, having tried to mislead an enemy “who kill for trivial matters”.

Khalife is said to have fled his army barracks in January 2023 when he realised he would face criminal charges but told jurors: “I’m certainly not a terrorist or a traitor. I think these charges are absurd.”

He later used a sling made of knotted bedsheets to cling on to the underside of a food delivery lorry to break out of prison while he was on kitchen duty on the morning of 6 September, the court has heard.

He was arrested on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt, west London, after three days on the run.

Khalife, from Kingston, southwest London, 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.