Two British grandmothers have been arrested under new anti-terrorism legislation and could now face up to a year in prison, after they protested outside of a military base.
By
AFP

Source:
AFP
6 Apr 2006 - 12:00 AM  UPDATED 22 Aug 2013 - 12:18 PM

Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, were detained at the US early warning station at Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, northern England after deliberately setting out to highlight the change in the law, the Independent newspaper reported.

Anyone who breaches the restrictions, which cover 10 bases across Britain, faces a maximum 12 months in prison and or a 5,000 pound (A$12,000) fine.

The women, veteran protesters who have 10 grandchildren between them, will face prosecution on April 15.

Willing jailbird

Ms Boyes, who with Ms John was detained with a placard denouncing the new law and US military policy, told the Independent, "I am quite willing to break the law and prepared to be charged and go to prison.”

The British government, which defended the new restrictions, has been keen to push through security laws since last year's suicide attacks on London, which killed 56 people.

But civil liberties groups claim the Blair government has crossed the "fine line" between protecting citizens and curbing peaceful protest and free speech.

The Independent’s report highlighted a number of other cases in which it said protesters had been turned into "terrorists" – one of which was an 82-year-old evicted from a Labour Party conference for heckling during Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s speech on Iraq.