Daniel Khalife: a fantasist or a player in the world of spies?

Central to the Daniel Khalife trial is a key inquiry: is he merely a delusional amateur who believes he is engaged in a strategic game with spies, or is he actually a notable figure in the complex realm of espionage?

According to the police, the situation is a mixture of both perceptions. They considered Khalife to be lacking in skills in several ways. His lawyer, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, described him as “unfortunate” and occasionally “almost ridiculous”—more like a character from a cartoon than a suave secret agent.

Investigators also gathered information about a young man who successfully orchestrated a prison break that led to a significant manhunt last year. Additionally, his collaboration with Iranian security forces might have had a real impact on people's lives.

Recently, a jury found Khalife guilty of acting as a resource for Iranian spies during his time as a British soldier while trying to avoid being caught. He had previously confessed to breaking out of Wandsworth prison while he was waiting for his trial.

"It's challenging to separate Khalife's self-image – the illusion he constructed, the wealth he accumulated, and his failure to grasp the harm he was inflicting," Commander Dominic Murphy from Scotland Yard’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit said to reporters when questioned about Khalife's reasons for collaborating with Tehran. "When you combine all these aspects, you get a complex overall view. And that is the reality of Daniel Khalife."

Khalife informed the jury that he aimed to develop his connections with Iranian intelligence in order to assist British security agencies. He asserted that he primarily provided his contacts with misleading information or genuine documents that were already publicly accessible. After gaining their trust, he expressed a desire to operate as a double agent for the UK. He argued that his escape was intended to highlight the mistake of imprisoning someone with his abilities.

A jury has determined that this individual was indeed spying for Tehran. He shared information with his associates that, although frequently fabricated, had the potential to endanger Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman previously imprisoned in Tehran, according to the police. Ironically, this same man believed he could gain favor with British intelligence by simply calling the MI5 front desk.

This was a guy who managed to compile a list of special forces members and then successfully escape from prison. At the same time, he believed he could manipulate the security systems of one country against another by reaching out through the “contact us” feature on MI6’s website.

Khalife's response to the accusations of espionage was that his behavior might have been "a bit irrational or foolish in certain ways," but he emphasized that he hadn't "betrayed or harmed anyone except for himself."

The 23-year-old also confessed to escaping from Wandsworth prison, located in south-west London, by attaching himself to the bottom of a food delivery truck in September 2023. At that time, he was being held in custody.

On the other hand, it’s possible that he didn’t have to be as clever as people might assume to make his getaway. The van driver who unwittingly helped Khalife mentioned in court that he was permitted to leave the location, despite being aware that a prisoner was unaccounted for. Additionally, an inspection revealed numerous shortcomings, painting a picture of a facility in disarray, unable to keep track of inmates even during regular working hours.

Khalife mentioned that his original intention was simply to create doubts about his potential escape in order to be transferred to a more secure area of the prison, where he believed he would be safer. However, when his attempts did not seem to raise any alarms with the senior prison officials, he decided that a more straightforward approach was necessary to make them take notice: a genuine escape.

During the trial, the court was informed that Khalife reached out to Iran in April 2019, roughly seven months after enlisting in the British army just before turning 17. The evidence presented revealed that he communicated with Hamed Ghashgabi, an Iranian intelligence officer who had already been sanctioned by the United States, via Facebook.

Prosecutors indicated that he began sharing information with his Iranian contacts the next month. Khalife claimed that he created "fabricated documents" to gain the Iranians' confidence. One of these was a fictitious letter that he pretended was from then Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, addressed to the head of MI6, containing a "series of directives regarding Iran." Another document was a counterfeit letter from former Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt, directed at a high-ranking naval official, which outlined "the application of unarmed submersible technology to advance the UK's interests in the Middle East."

Khalife also created various other documents, some of which had spelling errors. One of them, named “Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe intelligence options,” was brought up by the prosecutors who argued that it might have put her at risk. Additionally, there was a document featuring a Ministry of Defence heading titled “Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”

Approximately three months after his initial conversations with Iranian agents, Khalife made an attempt to reach out to the UK's foreign intelligence agency, MI6. Later, in November 2021, he also sought to connect with the domestic security agency, MI5.

However, before that, he traveled to Istanbul to "deliver a package" to Iranian intelligence. During this trip, he spoke with a contact about a military system and took a photo of a handwritten list that included 15 soldiers, some of whom were from the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS). Prosecutors revealed that he kept sharing information with Tehran until January 2022. Police indicated that his frequent attempts to reach out to his handlers were a notable aspect of Khalife’s case.

Around a year later, feeling increasingly trapped, he deserted his military unit.

Regardless of what the officers believed about his efforts to engage in espionage, they have not underestimated the danger they think he represented, nor the ongoing threat from countries like Iran.

“He paints a picture of the Iranians as inept and unprofessional. That's not how we see it,” Murphy stated. “We’ve managed to thwart 20 different plans, some of which involved assassinations. Since 2018, the focus on foreign state threats has increased from 5% to 20% of SO15’s overall work. I can't claim there have been major overhauls in how we address threats from foreign nations, but we are certainly more aware of them. Daniel Khalife is a prime example of that.”

Investigators think they have identified the individuals who were guiding Khalife, but they are still trying to figure out who was responsible for the covert exchanges in London parks on behalf of Tehran. The inquiry is ongoing. Although they do not believe Iran assisted him during his time on the run, despite Khalife's attempts to reach out, authorities are trying to trace the source of the £400 that was sent to him for support. Detectives have made it clear that his family is not under suspicion.

Although they acknowledge they had no clear information on Khalife's whereabouts during the initial 36 hours of his escape, the officers shared details of several close encounters. “I was watching the live footage of the Thames Valley police detention at the train station, and I really thought it was Daniel Khalife,” said Murphy.

"We believed we spotted him in a garden of a house close to Richmond Park, so we searched a relative's home. On his first night, he stayed in Richmond Park, but I think he was really just wandering the streets to stay away from the police. He likely didn't get any rest and was completely worn out by the time he was apprehended."

There are still uncertainties about the extent of the harm Khalife could have caused if he hadn't essentially reported himself to MI5, as law enforcement had no knowledge of his actions before that. Murphy pointed out, "We can't know all the details of what Daniel Khalife uncovered." As a result, authorities regard him as a significant figure in the international espionage scene.