The authorities said Daniel James, now 50, born Esmail Mohammad Beigi Gamasai, had pleaded poverty and said he couldn’t afford the legal expenses. But after he was sent off to prison, the government found he was a wealthy man from his business as a dance club owner in Brighton, England.
The daily Argus reported last week that Britain’s Legal Services Commission had confirmed that the money had all been paid back.
James is serving a 10-year prison term.
James was a corporal in the British Army who served as the interpreter for the top British general in Afghanistan, attending numerous meeting the general had with Afghan officials.
The prosecution, led by Prosecutor Mark Dennis, said James was caught “red-handed” through secret, coded e-mail conversations with Iranian military attachÈ Col. Mohammad Heydari. The prosecution alleged that a series of e-mails sent to Heydari meant James was either attempting to begin spying for Iran, or had already begun passing British secrets to Tehran—a charge James denied.
In one of his coded messages to Heydari, James wrote: “I am at your service.”
The prosecution said the defendant might have had divided loyalties because he was born in Iran and still had family and property there.
The prosecutor told the jury, “The defendant was offering his services to a foreign power, contrary to the interests of ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan] and the citizens of this country—all of us.
“While keeping one face to those around him—being charitable, being friendly, engaging in social events, group charitable events—there is another face which he kept hidden from view,” Dennis told the jury.
But James denied charges of communicating information to an enemy.
“Offering my services as a spy? I am not a spy; they are going mad,” James told the jury.
Defense attorney Colin Nicholls urged the jury not to jump to hasty conclusions. “Did Cpl. James, in the latter part of 2006, offer his services to Iran and the insurgents as a spy, and supply military information?” he asked the jury. “Or is he just some strange, complex character who was carried away by his own ideas, with the best possible motives, got out of his depth, and has been seriously misunderstood?”
He was described in court as flamboyant fantasist, who had once invited his general to a salsa dance, suggesting he was seriously out of touch with military behavior requirements.
In his closing speech, Prosecutor Dennis said the accused had divided loyalties and came to resent the Army because of his lack of promotion—linking racist attitudes to his lack of promotion.
For its side, the defense told the court the e-mails were an attempt to set up a deal for Afghanistan to buy gas supplies from Iran, a deal James said he hoped would also benefit the United States by reducing energy prices.
