An alleged spy for Iran made up ‘wiffle waffle’ intelligence reports about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and MI6 to impress his handlers, a court heard yesterday.
Daniel Khalife, 23, allegedly compiled a dossier of fake ‘Top secret’ documents to feed agents including a report on the British-Iranian academic who was being held at the time in Iran.
When police arrested the British soldier they found a bundle of fake intelligence reports on a USB stick made to look as if he had intercepted MI6 directives including a document by spy chief Sir Richard Moore and a letter from Sir Mark Sedwill at the UK Security Council.
The former soldier, now 23, sparked a nationwide manhunt when he escaped from Wandsworth Prison last September after being held on espionage charges, it was said.
He allegedly absconded using bed sheets to strap himself to the underside of a food delivery truck before being captured three days later in West London.
Daniel Khalife allegedly compiled a dossier of fake ‘Top secret’ documents about MI6 and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to feed his handlers, Woolwich Crown Court heard
Khalife , 23, from Kingston, South West London is accused of spending two years spying for Iran
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian academic, was a prisoner in Iran for six years before she was released in 2022 following a long campaign
Woolwich Crown Court heard on Thursday how Khalife rang MI5 boasting that he fooled Iranian intelligence with his ‘wiffle waffle’ reports cribbed from Wikileaks.
He said: ‘All of it is fabricated. Everything I have told them is fake.
‘They keep falling for it, I do not know how they have not found out it is fake. It’s wiffle waffle taken from Wikileaks.
‘They think it’s real.’
Khalife told MI5 that he thought ‘oh my god this is crazy’ when Iran started paying him for his phoney information, handing over £1,500 in a dog poo bag at a secret rendezvous in a park in Barnet, North London, jurors heard.
The supposedly secret reports were said to be littered with errors, including the incorrect spelling of ‘intelligence’ and he also used the wrong name for the Scotland Yard counter terrorism unit, jurors heard.
Khalife also got MI5 and MI6 mixed up when he emailed the latter asking to be a ‘double agent’, it was said.
But the soldier, who was given an award early in his career, allegedly told his Iranian handlers: ‘I’m one of the most intelligent people. I won an award. I am better than everybody here. I’m more intelligent than everybody here.’
Mark Heywood, KC, has said Khalife was playing a ‘game’ of ‘double bluff’ to hide his real activities which included compiling a list of SAS soldiers names from a Ministry of Defence computer.
The ex-British Army soldier is also accused of absconding from Wandsworth Prison using a ‘makeshift sling made of bedsheets’ to strap himself to the underside of a food delivery truck
Khalife had been working in the kitchen of HMP Wandsworth (pictured) when he allegedly vanished on September 6, 2023, after failing to show up to help a Bidfood delivery driver
He is accused of compiling the names, service number, rank and units of 15 SAS and SBS soldiers to pass to his handlers.
Khalife denies committing an act prejudicial to the interests or safety of the state by collecting information that might be useful to an enemy between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022, contrary to the Official Secrets Act 1911.
He denies eliciting or attempting to elicit personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism from a Ministry of Defence administration system.
The defendant also denies perpetrating a bomb hoax and escaping prison.
The trial continues.
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