The Sunday Mail can reveal claims of perjury dedicated in Alex Salmond ’s intercourse assault trial are being probed.
Legal professionals for the previous first minister have written to the Crown Workplace laying out a sequence of felony allegations.
And we now have discovered the Crown Workplace and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has appointed an unbiased QC to probe the claims together with a senior prosecutor.
A COPFS spokesman stated: “Correspondence from Mr Salmond’s solicitor has been acquired and will probably be responded to in the end.
“As is commonplace apply in any case concerning politicians, this will probably be handled by a procurator fiscal and unbiased Crown Counsel with out the involvement of the Regulation Officers.”
Salmond was cleared in 2020 of sexually assaulting 9 ladies whereas he was FM.
A jury discovered the previous SNP chief not responsible on 12 of the sexual assault expenses dealing with him, whereas one other was discovered not confirmed.
The felony trial adopted a civil case Salmond gained towards the Scottish Authorities in January 2019 over its complaints investigation which was dominated to be “illegal”, “unfair” and “tainted by obvious bias”.
The perjury claims concern proof given on the Salmond trial which it's claimed is contradicted in statements given to a Holyrood inquiry which probed the Authorities’s botched case towards him.
We will additionally reveal a police probe into leaks to journalists regarding Salmond’s case has been codenamed Operation Newbiggin, with a number of individuals interviewed.
Salmond welcomed the felony investigations, whereas declining to touch upon the potential for additional civil motion towards the Scottish Authorities or Crown Workplace.
He stated: “I welcome the inquiries and can do every thing I can to help.
“The felony investigations should be allowed to take their course earlier than another motion is taken.”
Salmond believes there was a plot to finish his profession orchestrated by senior figures near FM Nicola Sturgeon.
He accused the Scottish Authorities of a “pantomime of deception and secrecy” when he appeared earlier than a Holyrood inquiry probing the investigation into sexual harassment allegations made towards him.
The Authorities’s conduct was judged “procedurally unfair” by the Court docket of Session in January 2019 and ministers had been compelled to pay greater than £500,000 to Salmond in authorized bills.
We later revealed ministers had pressed forward with the case regardless of their very own legal professionals making clear months earlier they had been prone to lose.
Nevertheless, Sturgeon denied breaching the ministerial code and branded claims from Salmond “ridiculous conspiracy theories” when she confronted MSPs.
A supply stated: “If something was to come back of the perjury allegations, it will have the potential to spark a serious disaster for Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Authorities.
“The Alex Salmond case is one thing the First Minister desperately needs to place behind her and any new developments would open up previous wounds she had hoped had been on their technique to therapeutic.”
A Police Scotland spokesman referred questions regarding perjury allegations to the Crown Workplace.
He added: “We've got a acquired two complaints concerning the potential illegal disclosure of data, that are being investigated.”
The Scottish Authorities declined to remark.
Signal as much as our Politics e-newsletter
Get all the highest Scottish politics information despatched straight to your Inbox by signing as much as our Politics e-newsletter.
We cowl Holyrood, Westminster and native councils, with a present deal with how our governments are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
To enroll, merely enter your e mail handle into the pink field close to the highest of this text.
Alternatively, you'll be able to go to our e-newsletter signal up-centre. As soon as you might be there, enter your e mail handle and choose Politics and another Each day Report newsletters which can be of curiosity.
Do not miss the newest information from round Scotland and past - Signal as much as our each day e-newsletterright here.