A British soldier gave sensitive information to people linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and then escaped from prison, sparking a nationwide manhunt, prosecutors told a London court on Tuesday.
Daniel Abed Khalife collected “sensitive and sometimes secret” information for more than two years between May 2019 and January 2022, then claimed he did it to become a double agent, prosecutor Mark Heywood told jurors.
Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, was later accused of leaving a fake bomb on a table and escaping from his barracks in 2023 before being arrested and detained pending trial.
He then escaped from prison last September, Heywood added, sparking an “intense national manhunt”.
The 23-year-old is on trial at Woolwich Crown Court, accused of gathering information that could be useful to an enemy, namely Iran.
