Daniel Khalife ‘endangered Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’ with fake intelligence on negotiations

Daniel Khalife could have endangered the life of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by sending a fake intelligence document to Iran which said the British Government was not willing to negotiate over her release, his trial has heard.

Khalife, 23, is accused of sending a document to Iranian agents titled “Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe intelligence options” which he created in 2021.

The British-Iranian mother was detained in Iran in 2016, and returned to the UK in March 2022.

Prosecutors say he acted recklessly in sending the document, and could have caused “consequences” for Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was freed only after ministers agreed to settle a £400 million debt dating back to the 1970s.

The former soldier’s bogus document read: “There will be no advances in the area of returning Nazanin to the UK without further procurement of the debt owed to the Islamic Republic.

“The UK will not be seen to pay ransoms to hostile nations … terrorists have long used kidnap for ransom.”

His document referenced an apparent meeting between then foreign office minister James Cleverly and Iranian deputy foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani.

Prosecutor Mark Heywood KC said: “Do you understand that contemplating sending, or sending this document like you told police, could endanger British citizens?”

Khalife told Woolwich Crown Court he did not remember the document in question.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 46, was arrested by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at Imam Khomeini airport in Tehran after a holiday visit, where she had taken her daughter Gabriella to see her parents.

She was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

In a transcript of a police interview previously read to the jury, Khalife said he produced “fake documents” to help convince the Iranians to trust him.

When police arrested him and searched his room at MoD Stafford in January 2022, they found a number of “completely fake” documents in digital and paper form purporting to be from MPs, senior military officials and the security services, his trial heard.

Prosecutors say Khalife made sure there was no record of what document were sent.

On Monday, Khalife pleaded guilty partway through his trial to escaping from HMP Wandsworth in south-west London in September 2023.

He denies charges contrary to the Official Secrets Act and Terrorism Act, and is accused of perpetrating a bomb hoax.

The trial continues.

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