One of those cases that may never come to trial…
Hmm - I suspect it may be a hard charge to prove - whats the difference bewteen "research", PR and spying???
“The Telegraph understands that security services suspect a number of Chinese agents to be working in Westminster, and are planning to use
the National Security Act, passed this summer, to detain them.
The Act introduced an offence of “foreign interference”, making it illegal for spies to meddle in elections or disrupt the workings of parliamentary democracy in the UK. Working covertly for a foreign hostile power will now become a criminal offence.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of offences under the old Official Secrets Act, which dates back to 1911 and is much harder to prove, because their alleged offences occurred before the national security act came into force……
MI5 had long complained to ministers that it previously did not have the powers to go after agents working for hostile states. A senior official –
known only as Director K – complained to the Telegraph two years ago that the 1911 act was only suitable “if we catch somebody with a hand-drawn map intending to send it to an enemy”…..