New spy law 'risks harm to innocent'

NEW laws designed to catch foreign spies can "be abused in the wrong hands" and result in wrongful arrests, the terror watchdog says.

- BY MICHAEL KNOWLES

Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, warned innocent people could be probed by the state because definitions in the National Security Act are so broad.

He said journalists, lawyers and charity workers could all be caught up in investigations into alleged links to foreign intelligence.

And Mr Hall declared "police and prosecutors must avoid crushing the butterfly on the wheel".