Interpreter who spied for Iran gets 10 years

THE Army corporal who was personal interpreter to Britain's top general in Afghanistan was today jailed for 10 years at the Old Bailey for spying for Iran.

Daniel James, of Brighton, was convicted at an earlier hearing of communicating information useful to an enemy.

James, who had access to the highest echelons of the Nato mission in Kabul, was caught red-handed betraying his country in a series of coded emails.

The Iranian-born soldier, a flamboyant fantasist who styled himself "General James", believed he had been denied promotion because of racism and jealousy.

He told one colleague: "They will have their comeuppance."

James also needed money. He was £25,000 in debt and had four mortgages on flats in Brighton - although he later claimed he would not give away secrets for a million pounds. But his treachery could have cost the lives of British soldiers. Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC said it was "the height of betrayal".

James worked for General David Richards, who has since been appointed the next head of the British Army, and at the time headed the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, a 37-nation coalition comprising 35,000 troops.

Sentencing James today, Mr Justice Roderick Evans said: "The gravest part of your offending and what made this case unique was that you engaged in this activity when you were actually serving in a war zone."

James, a Territorial Army soldier who came to Britain as a teenager, showed no reaction and bowed to the judge as he was taken down. Earlier this month the 45-year-old was found guilty of a charge relating to emails he sent to Colonel Mohammad Hossein Heydari, military attache at the Iranian embassy in Kabul.