UK ex-soldier sentenced to more than 14 years for helping Iran

STORY: Former UK soldier Daniel Abed Khalife is sentenced to more than 14 years in jail for gathering information for Iran

:: January 3, 2025

:: London, England

:: Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, Judge

:: “You passed information you had gathered to those agents of an enemy state. You allowed them to know your personal details and movements, including when you were deployed to an international training operation in the United States of America. You travel to Istanbul to meet with them, and on two occasions you received payment for your services.”

:: “You are to be sentenced as an adult, having been convicted at the age of 23, and although your offending began when you were 17, you persisted in it for a considerable period.”

:: “First you will serve half the sentence for the Official Secrets Act offense. Then you will serve 40% of the sentence for escape. Finally, you will serve 2/3 of the custodial term for the Terrorism Act offense before your case will be referred to the Parole Board for consideration of whether you should be released before the expiry of the total of the custodial terms. The total sentence is therefore 14 years and three months.”

Daniel Abed Khalife was convicted last November of gathering military and classified information for Iran between 2019 and 2022, and obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism.

Khalife’s “personal details and movements,” including while he was being trained at an “international training operation in the United States of America,” were among the passed information, the judge announced during the sentencing.

Khalife, who was discharged from the armed forces after he was charged, also admitted to escaping from London’s Wandsworth prison in September 2023 while awaiting trial for the other charges. He tied himself to the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a nationwide manhunt before he was caught days later.

The 23-year-old, whose mother was born in Iran, had said he was a patriot and had contacted both Britain’s MI6 and MI5 intelligence services about his contacts, saying he wanted to be a “double agent.” He had said he and his family hated the Iranian government.