Britain is preparing some of the toughest legal measures it has ever used against foreign-backed violence on its soil. The new legislation, set to be announced in the king's speech next week, will allow courts to jail people who carry out attacks on behalf of hostile foreign states for up to 14 years, even when those individuals had no idea they were working for a foreign power.
The Guardian first reported that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will receive new powers under the National Security Act to formally designate certain groups as foreign intelligence services. Anyone then found to be acting on behalf of such a group, wittingly or not, faces criminal prosecution under existing national security law.
