>A former soldier whose prison escape sparked a huge manhunt in 2023 has been convicted of spying for Iran but cleared of carrying out a bomb hoax*.
>Prosecutors accused Khalife of playing “a cynical game” in claiming he wanted a career working as a double agent to help British security services. In fact, he gathered “a very large body of restricted and classified material”, they said.
>He denied ever having sent the list to the Iranians, and claimed he mostly sent useless or made-up documents. In his defence, Khalife’s barrister, Gul Nawaz Hussain KC, said his double-agent plot had been amateurish.
>In a transcript of a police interview read to the jury, Khalife said he produced “fake documents” to help convince the Iranians to trust him.
This story probably isn't big enough to warrant a whole thread. However, I murmered "what the fuck, mate" to myself while reading too many times to count, so I felt obliged to make one. I mean, talk about being too clever by half, although maybe completely deluded is a more precise description. Either way, never before has the phrase "I'm playing both sides so I always come out on top" gone so disasterously wrong for someone. Except maybe Himmler, but his heart was never really in it. And you definitely never, ever want to hear your barrister making the "in many ways, the defendant is too stupid to have committed a crime" argument in court.
