A former soldier accused of passing secret information to Iran and escaping from prison won an award for best junior soldier in his squadron early in his career, but was told not to apply to special forces because of his background, a jury was told.
Daniel Khalife, 23, is alleged to have fled his Army barracks in January 2023 when he realised he would face criminal charges over allegations he passed classified information on to the Middle Eastern country’s intelligence service.
Later, while on remand, he is alleged to have escaped from HMP Wandsworth in September 2023 by tying himself to the underside of a food delivery truck using bedsheets.
On Thursday, Woolwich Crown Court heard more about Khalife’s Army career.
Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, representing Khalife, said his client joined the Army at the age of 16, turning 17 weeks later.
He started his career has a signaller, a soldier responsible for military communication.
The court heard that Khalife was given the award for best junior soldier in his squadron in 2020.
In an image of the award shown to the court, Khalife is the only signaller to be engraved on it, with previous winners all being lance corporals.
Captain Lewis Fox, who was second-in-command of Khalife’s squadron, agreed that it was “rare” for a signaller to win the award.
Between February to April 2021, Khalife was deployed to Fort Hood, Texas, where he received training in Falcon, a military communications system.
Mr Hussain said Khalife was a “very quick learner” and quickly became proficient in using the system.
The court heard that Khalife was praised by a senior officer for becoming “a master of Falcon”, adding that it showed “good effort and dedication” to “develop skills at such an early stage of your career”.
Jurors were shown messages from a WhatsApp group used by soldiers in Khalife’s troop, where colleague made a mock-up image of Khalife as a falconer holding a falcon on his hand.
In September 2021, Khalife was then promoted to lance corporal.
Mr Hussain told the court that Khalife wanted to join the special forces, but was told not to apply “because of where his parents are from”.
He said it was “common knowledge” that it was difficult for soldiers from “certain backgrounds” to pass the vetting needed to join.
Mr Hussain asked Captain Fox if he would have told Khalife not to apply.
Captain Fox said he would have “advised against going for special forces”.
“It is a very long process and the vetting is in the last two weeks,” he said.
He added: “I would have heavily advised against doing that.”
However, he said that he “can’t not let someone go for it” as they are “policy bound” to support soldiers who want to apply for the special forces.
“It is important to manage expectations for some soldiers,” he said.
As well as the prison escape, Khalife faces a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence, contrary to the Official Secrets Act between May 1 2019 and January 6 2022.
In addition, he is accused of perpetrating a bomb hoax in Beaconside, Staffordshire, on or before January 2023.
The fourth charge alleges Khalife elicited or attempted 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 on August 2 2021.
He denies all the charges.
The trial continues.
