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13-11-2024
LONDON: A British soldier accused of passing sensitive information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pleaded guilty on Monday to escaping from prison while awaiting trial.
Daniel Abed Khalife is on trial at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, accused of collecting sensitive information between May 2019 and January 2022.
Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, also denies leaving a fake bomb on a desk and absconding from his barracks in 2023.
Prosecutors had also alleged Khalife escaped from London’s Wandsworth prison in September 2023 by tying himself to the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a brief nationwide manhunt.
The 23-year-old had originally pleaded not guilty to escaping from lawful custody, but changed his plea to guilty on Monday after having given evidence for several days earlier this month.
Khalife is also charged with gathering information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iran, obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax.
These are collecting and communicating information useful to an enemy, namely Iran; collecting the names of Special Forces soldiers that would be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax at his army barracks.
Former British army soldier Daniel Khalife has pleaded guilty to escaping from Wandsworth Prison last September.
He had originally pleaded not guilty to the charge, and is in the middle of giving evidence at his trial.
This morning he had the charge put to him again and pleaded guilty, with the jury returning a guilty verdict on the charge of escaping from lawful custody.
His trial on three other charges is continuing.
Daniel Khalife’s trial began last month, and he has already given evidence for three days.
During that evidence he admitted escaping from Wandsworth Prison in London by hanging in a makeshift sling under a food delivery lorry, concealed by the tailgate.
He dropped out from under the lorry near Wandsworth roundabout and disappeared into the capital. He was recaptured three days later after a high-profile manhunt.
He told the jury that he escaped because he was being held on the vulnerable prisoners unit where most inmates are sex offenders, and because he had been warned that “terrorists” in Wandsworth Prison would try to attack him.
He said he believed that if he escaped he would be put in the high security unit at Belmarsh Prison.
An audit found 81 security failings at Wandsworth Prison after the escape.
The prison’s Independent Monitoring Board said a security audit identified “81 points of failure” and resulted in “long overdue” upgrades being made to CCTV cameras which had not worked for more than a year.
The jury has heard that Daniel Khalife joined the Army at 16, and had reached out to a man linked to Iranian intelligence aged 17. He then contacted MI6 saying he wanted to be a double agent.
He has told the jury all the information he gave the Iranians was “fake” or “useless”.
He denies gathering information useful to an enemy, collecting a list of Special Forces soldiers that would be useful for terrorism, and perpetrating a bomb hoax.
His evidence and the trial continue. (Int’l News Desk)
