Two British grandmothers are facing up to a year in prison after being
arrested under new anti-terrorism legislation that outlaws protests at military
bases, The Independent newspaper said.
Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, were detained at the US early warning
station at Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, northern England, on Saturday after
deliberately setting out to highlight the change in the law, it added.
Civil liberties campaigners believe the legislation, which came into force
last week and covers 10 bases, including nuclear research facilities,
criminalises free speech.
Anyone who breaches the legislation faces a maximum 12 months in prison
and/or a 5,000-pound (7,100-euro, 8,700-dollar) fine.
The newspaper said the women, who have 10 grandchildren between them and are
veteran peace protesters, will learn whether they will face prosecution on April
15.
Boyes, who with John was detained with a placard denouncing the new law and
US military policy, was quoted as saying: "I am quite willing to break the law
and prepared to be charged and go to prison.
"The government thinks it can do whatever it wants and that it has a passive
public which accepts whatever it throws at it. I find it very worrying."
The British government, which defended the new restrictions, has been keen to
push through new security laws since last year's suicide attacks on London,
which killed 56, including the four bombers.
But civil liberties groups were quoted as saying it had crossed the "fine
line" between protecting citizens and curbing peaceful protest and free speech.
The Independent highlighted a number of other cases in which it said
protesters had been turned into "terrorists".
They included that of an 82-year-old peace activist who was evicted from the
annual conference of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's governing Labour Party
for heckling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his speech on
Iraq.