Daniel Khalife used Facebook to make first contact with Iran, court hears
Ex-soldier used Facebook to make first contact with Iran, court hears
Woolwich Crown Court heard Mr Khalife found Hamed Ghashgavi, a man connected to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), on the social media site after reading a news story about him being sanctioned by the US.
Daniel Khalife, 23, is on trial on charges of collecting sensitive military information for Iran.
A former British soldier accused of spying for Iran and escaping from prison made first contact with an Iranian intelligence officer by sending him a Facebook message, a trial has heard.
Speaking about his first contact with Mr Ghashgavi, Mr Khalife told officers he "found him on Facebook and made contact with him."
The court heard that as his relationship with Mr Ghashgavi and other Iranian contacts developed, Mr Khalife was told to travel to a north London park to collect money.
At the park, Mr Khalife saw four of the "creepiest, scariest guys I've ever seen" in a car - who he believed were connected to the IRGC - and collected ?1,500 left in a dog poo bag.
Mr Khalife took a picture of the bag, with the money inside, and sent it to his Iranian contacts who wanted proof that he had received it, the court heard.
The former soldier later told police that he had produced a number of "fake documents" to help convince the Iranians to trust him, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
"Things started to get serious," he told officers, "they finally started to believe what I was saying."
Police found a number of "completely fake" documents in Mr Khalife's room at MoD Stafford when he was arrested in January 2022, the jury heard.
The fabricated documents included a letter from former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to the head of MI6 with a "set of orders... in regards to Iran", and another with a Ministry of Defence header called "Iran's nuclear ambitions", jurors were told.
Mr Khalife told his contacts he was in "some Gucci unit" in the army, the court heard.
He later created a fake email account and contacted MI6, claiming he wanted to work as a "double agent", the jury was previously told. In a message to MI6 under a false name, Mr Khalife said he had been asked to provide the Iranian government with information and had sent them a fake document for which they paid $2,000 (?1,500) left in a dog poo bag.
