The punishment for treason in the UK depends on the specific circumstances of the case. Under the 1842 Treason Act, a person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor. A person convicted of treason is liable to imprisonment for life or for any shorter term.
Historically, the punishment for treason was much more severe. Until 1814, the convicted traitor could suffer hanging, drawing, and quartering, which involved being tied up and drawn across rough ground by a horse, hanged to within an inch of their life, emasculated, disemboweled, and beheaded. Their organs would then be burned in front of them one by one, and their body cut into four sections.
However, the punishment for treason has been amended over the years, and the death penalty was abolished for treason in the UK in 1998. The last person to be executed for high treason in the UK was William Joyce in 1946. Recently, Jaswant Singh Chail became the first person in the UK to be convicted of treason since 1981, and he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
