He was prosecuted by the British authorities and pleaded guilty to eight counts of high treason, for which he was sentenced to death, seven months after the war in Europe ended.

In Paris, he met the French fascist leader Jacques Doriot, with whom he travelled to Austria, Italy, and Germany to witness the effects of fascism in those countries.

Amery told his family he had joined Francisco Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and was awarded a medal of honour while serving as an intelligence officer with Italian volunteer forces (Corpo Truppe Volontarie).

During this period, Amery made a series of pro-German propaganda radio broadcasts, attempting to appeal to the British people to join the war on communism.

The idea of a British force to fight the communists languished until Amery re-encountered Jacques Doriot during a visit to France in January 1943.

Doriot was part of the LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français), a French volunteer force fighting alongside the Germans on the eastern front.

Amery's first recruiting drive for what was initially to be called the British Legion of St George took him to the Saint-Denis POW camp outside Paris.

Amery's link to the unit ended in October 1943, when the Waffen SS decided his services were no longer needed, and it was officially renamed the British Free Corps.

Amery continued to broadcast and write propaganda in Berlin until late 1944 when he travelled to Northern Italy to lend support to Benito Mussolini's Salò Republic.

On 25 April 1945, Amery was captured along with his French mistress Michelle Thomas by Italian partisans from the Garibaldi Brigade near Como.

They were escorted by three armed soldiers and Leonard Burt, a senior police officer seconded to the British Army Intelligence Corps.

At the same time, his brother Julian attempted to show that John had become a Spanish citizen, and therefore would legally be incapable of committing treason against the United Kingdom.

[8] Further attempts at a defence were suddenly abandoned on the first day of his scheduled trial, 28 November 1945, when to general astonishment, Amery pleaded guilty to eight charges of treason, and was sentenced to death.