My Defence Fund has now reached over £75,000 from almost 5,000 donors. I am extremely grateful to each and every one. Work is now proceeding apace with the legal team. If charges are brought against any of the others who have been threatened by Police Scotland or the Crown Office over this case, including the journalist whose laptops and phones were seized by police, the funds will be made available to their defence also.
Original Post (from 24 April, with further update below).
I know of four pro-Independence folk who were last week phoned or visited by Police Scotland and threatened with contempt of court proceedings over social media postings they had made weeks back on the Alex Salmond case. Then on Monday, a Scottish journalist I know had his home raided by five policemen, who confiscated (and still have) all his computers and phones. They said they were from the “Alex Salmond team” and investigating his postings on the Alex Salmond case. He has not to date been charged, and his lawyer is advising him at present to say nothing, so I am not revealing his name.
Then on Tuesday morning, a large Police van full of police pulled up onto the pavement right outside my front gate, actually while I was talking on the phone to a senior political figure about the raid on my friend. The police just sat in the van staring at my house. I contacted my lawyers who contacted the Crown Office. The police van pulled away and my lawyers contacted me back to say that the Crown Office had told them I would be charged, or officially “cited”, with Contempt of Court, but they agreed there was no need for a search of my home or to remove my devices, or for vans full of police.
On Thursday two plain clothes police arrived and handed me the indictment. Shortly thereafter, an email arrived from The Times newspaper, saying that the Crown Office had “confirmed” that I had been charged with contempt of court. In the case of my friend whose house was raided, he was contacted by the Daily Record just before the raid even happened!
I am charged with contempt of court and the hearing is on 7 July at the High Court in Edinburgh. The contempt charge falls in two categories:
i) Material published before the trial liable to prejudice a jury
ii) Material published which could assist “jigsaw identification” of the failed accusers.
Plainly neither of these is the true motive of the Crown Office. If they believed that material I published was likely to have prejudiced the jury, then they had an obvious public duty to take action BEFORE the trial – and the indictment shows conclusively they were monitoring my material long before the trial. To leave this action until after the trial which they claim the material was prejudicing, would be a serious act of negligence on their part. It is quite extraordinary to prosecute for it now and not before the trial.
As for identifying the failed conspirators, I have done less than the mainstream media. But plainly the Crown Office, or whoever is pushing them to this persecution, had no genuine interest in protecting the identities, otherwise why did they tip off the media that I was being charged, and thus guarantee further publicity? If protecting the identities was their motive, to tip off the media would obviously be counterproductive.
But what proves that the Crown Office is acting from base motives and not those stated is the one-sided nature of this. Only supporters of Alex Salmond – the Alex Salmond found innocent by the jury – are being pursued by this continuing Police Scotland operation.
There are literally thousands who put out “Salmond is guilty” “Salmond is a rapist” “Salmond is a pervert” posts on social media before and during the trial. Not one has had the police knock on the door. The Herald published absolutely deliberately, the day before the trial, a montage of Alex Salmond amongst photos of mass murderers. They have not been charged. Every newspaper published “jigsaw identification” information which I withheld. They have not been charged or investigated, despite the evidence brilliantly compiled and presented to the Police.
No, this is a blatant, one-sided political persecution. That much is entirely plain. I have therefore decided, in the interests of open justice, to publish the entire indictment against me (with a single sentence redacted where I think the prosecution were excessively indiscreet). Neither the indictment nor the covering letter is marked confidential or not for publication. It is, so far as I know, a public document.
The Crown have very deliberately not included the names of any of the failed conspirators in the indictment and instead refer to the women by their court allocated letters. That is a plain indication to me that this is a public document drafted specifically with publication in mind. Otherwise the document would have more naturally used the names and not the alphabet letters.
More fundamentally this indictment is the basis on which they are attempting to put me in prison – in fact the indictment specifies up to two years in jail and an unlimited fine as the punishment sought from the court. I think the public interest, and my own interest, in it being public is very substantial.
The state believes it has finally discovered a way to put me in prison without the inconvenient hurdle of a jury of my peers. Contempt of Court is just decided by a judge. It is extraordinary that you can go to jail for a substantial two years with no jury protection and no test of “beyond reasonable doubt”; and on the whim of a judge defending what he may view as the dignity of his own office. This really is the epitome of bad law. To use it against freedom of speech is disgusting.
So here is the full indictment against me:
redactedcaseagainstcraigmurray (1)
If the indictment contains anything they did not wish to be public, well, I didn’t force them to serve it on me. From my side, the proceedings against me will be entirely open. I will remind you that you may find all or part of the indictment initially convincing; but you are yet to see my point by point reply, which naturally I shall also publish in due course.
[UPDATE
Pending the outcome of the trial, and on legal advice, I have redacted from the indictment those sentences complained of as aiding identification of a witness, and have redacted same sentences from original blog posts. My position is firmly that they absolutely do not they do not contribute to likely identification of witnesses, and the mainstream media did that to a far greater degree than I.]
The purpose of this operation against free speech is a desperate attempt to keep the lid on the nature of the state conspiracy to fit up Alex Salmond. Once the parliamentary inquiry starts, a huge amount of evidence of conspiracy which the court did not allow the defence to introduce in evidence during the criminal trial, will be released. The persecution of myself is an attempt to intimidate independent figures into not publishing anything about it. The lickspittle media of course do not have to be intimidated. To this end, I am charged specifically with saying that the Alex Salmond case was a fit-up and a conspiracy in which the Crown Office was implicated. So I thought I would say it again now:
The Alex Salmond case was a fit-up and a conspiracy in which the Crown Office was implicated, foiled by the jury. If Scotland is the kind of country where you go to jail for saying that, let me get my toothbrush.
Before then, I am afraid we have to fund my defence and I shall be very grateful for donations to my defence fund. My initial target is £60,000. I shall post daily updates on total reached, but I shall be using my established funding channels and not involving a crowdfunding website. I do not intend to fight this battle entirely on the defensive, and some of the funding may be put to launching actions against the Crown or others.
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Made a donation. We must find out who is behind this stitch up.
I am looking forward to truth ,reconciliation and REPARATION.
It’s awful what these people tried to do to Alex Salmond, for this to happen to anyone is shocking, the people responsible should be taken to task, I am donating, I wish it could be more, good luck, I believe strongly in the justice system
Just donated Craig- don’t let the barstewards get you down!!
One wonders whether its necessarry for you to ask for all the police and crowm office information gathered on you from the moment you attempted joining the court case against AS/got the black island accreditation. This ought be a case against the crown which seems to have got hopelessly stuck in this free speech morast of their own making.
They seems to be spinning on a coin in trying to keep you away from JA final hearing in May, should he be still alive in the Belmarsh covid incubator.
Craig worked hard to gain hatred of Atlanticists on both side of the pond. Recent revelations about Labour revealed how deep is personal hatred stemming from the fervent loyalty to the cause: preserving everything which is convenient and familiar, be it union of the kingdoms, Israel, Gulfies as most reliable importers of overpriced weapons; the list is long, but the method of compiling is simple.
Personally, I do not care much about Scottish independence, but it is a part of a much wider cause. And the speed at which Craig can fund this battle can be a useful show of solidarity.
I have donated directly to your bank account. Goog luck with the case.
Beautifully vague law, to be used by the courts as they wish to squish whatever voice they don’t want to be heard.
Effectively it can ban any reporting on any case with secret accusers, because the reporting of the facts of the proceedings would necessarily require repeating information about the accusation, which the accusers have to be party to.
The standard should be naming names directly – a testable law that would work equitably, and something you didn’t do. Good luck with the court cases!
It is very clear from the indictment that the “Stasi” (to parrot the recent Labour Party leaked report) has been following closely everyone’s actions here and on Twitter!
1. Am I right in thinking that the person signing the indictment also led the prosecution case? If so is there no such thing as “conflict of interest” here or in law in that he failed to win his case and makes this appear more like “sour grapes”. Would these proceedings have been brought had the prosecution won its case?
2. The indictment cites several instances of twitter and blog respondents anonymously warning about ease of identification, but how does anyone know that these were not deliberate plants to support this case. How legitimate are those comments as evidence without their being produced in person as evidence?
3. The dubious practice of police “trawling” or “fishing”, which historically has its roots in demonology and witch finding, was well researched by the late Richard Webster in “The Secret of Bryn Estyn. The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt” (The Orwell Press 2005), which describes in detail a) how it went about its task of gathering “Moorov” type evidence resulting in many false charges being made in North Wales in the 1980s and 1990s and b) how it spread into other police areas. “Saville” of course revived and sharpened the practice of “fishing”, but despite the case of Carl Beech, it has never been studied critically (Webster apart). It is perfectly reasonable to question the legitimacy of police methods in this case, which should be subject to independent investigation anyway as an outcome of the case.
4. In his study Webster also described in detail the symbiotic relationship between police and (mainstream) media in the spread of belied and uncritical acceptance about sexual abuse, which could then influence the attitiudes of juries as ordinary people subject to its propaganda tracing its origin to the work of W.T Stead, who as both a puritan and journalist, made the “Northern Echo” of which he was editor to use sex to sell newspapers. “In 1885,…Stead’s calculated use of sexual sensationalism for political ends proved useful.” (p564). And it has gone on ever since with the more lurid and juicy details of a case always making the headlines. No inherent legimacy can be ascribed to any media reporting and alternative descriptions of the same events should be treated as having equivalent, (arguably higher in Craig’s reporting), validity.
5. I shall certainly be pleased to help with any “sleuthing” if it is within my sphere of ability and technical competence.
Some very interesting points raised Crispa. I do hope you can do some sleuthing. The role of the police and specially the advocate depute, A Prentice, is very curious and deserves some investigation.
Have contributed my tuppence worth to the fund. Delighted to see it climbing rapidly to the goal. Will contribute further if needed. I hope you are vindicated and that this presents a further opportunity to shed light on the people ultimately behind these allegations and who is leaking the information to the press. I see the indictment cites David Clegg as then editor of the Daily Record which previously managed to get a “scoop” on the Alex Salmond allegations. How lucky can one newspaper get?
I send some funds as well. And thanks for your continuous publishing service. Really appreciated.
Hi Craig i have donated bloody awful what they are doing to you good luck and kick their arse x
Still can’t see a word about it in The Guardian, despite site and Google searches.
Donation made, all the best Craig.
Gratifying to see the level of support at this early stage. I wish I were rich to be able to help more, but I have made a donation and will review the situation as it develops.
The attack on you, Craig, is an attck on all of us. Your fight is our fight so we must back you up!
Good luck i wish you all the best. These are scary times we live in. It makes a massive difference to see strong people stand up against these persecutions. An attack on you is an attack on all of us.
Hi Craig
I am not a fan of Alex Salmond but I will be contributing to your defence fund .If you haven’t done so already you need to get someone to propose your membership of the Freemasons .Also make a generous contribution to the Orange Order !
@ Peter Kane April 25, 2020 at 12:20
‘What doth it profit a man, if he worships Jah-Bul-On, and suffers the loss of his soul?’ (Paraphrased)
……Something is telling me that this isn’t as straightforward as it all seems. I’m troubled by the thought of Craig being railroaded into a trial and possible conviction that may ultimately result in the Salmond verdict being overturned and declared a mistrial. The wording of the indictment, “interfere with the course of justice”, gives some idea of how it could all play out. It’s crucial that he is found not guilty.
Craig, I may not agree with everything you spout, but as they say ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’. Long may you be a thorn in the establishments side. Donated.
I had the same feeling Spencer, what if this Coc action jeopardidsed Alex further actions?
Should you not ask for this charge to be delayed/ postponed until AS case been finished? as it could interfere with his action?
What if you are found guilty in their eyes only and they can cop out of any further AS trials?
My £100 are.on their way.
Craig, I’m wondering whether we your loyal readers should start a letter campaign to the CPS, maybe they’ll start hoping this problem will go away if they start receiving thousands of letters a day clogging up their post box
Donation made to MURRAY DEFENCE – I hope this helps. Keep fighting!
Is this another attempt to throw doubt on the outcome of the jury decision in the AS case while also attempting to bring down CM who they see as an enemy against the establishment?
Donated, this is a serious threat freedom and liberty by the establishment.
Unfortunately there is nothing unusual about this type of activity within the UK. Coming from the occupied six counties in the north of Ireland we are well used to the British regime doing this and worse. Good luck with everything, mo chara.
Donated. Keep doing it.
Always nice to see how many people want to poke bureaucratic jackanapes in the eye. With luck there will be a a fair few state lickspittles having their weekend spoilt. ;O)
Just bunged you a few quid Craig. I wish you all the very best, it seems most unfair and I might add irregular.
I’m having trouble getting past the first sentence of the indictment. It says that Alex Salmond was arrested by police officers in relation to a number of incidents that had taken place in Scotland. They seem to have forgotten to include the word “alleged” .
Added my two pennies worth to the fund. Best of luck.
As an aside, Craig, although I know we have GDPR I do hope if you are raided your computer contacts/data is suitably encrypted … although they’ve done nothing wrong they have everything to fear in the current climate !
Donated, can’t do much now but ready to help again if/when needed. Am also rather worried about the implications for AS of this “interference in the course of justice” indictment.
As a matter of interest, is counter-attack against CPS possible before the outcome of this trial? Or only after? Also, is the charge of contempt of court appealable?
As somebody has already pointed out, there is nothing in Ms Viner’s Guardian about Craig and this attack on him by an arm of the UK state. It’s interesting that that is the case but Murdoch’s Times who one would think as being less supportive than the Guardian, has covered it yesterday. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-diplomat-craig-murray-charged-over-alex-salmond-trial-pdltrzlch
However, the same Times journalist, Kieran Andrews, Scottish Political Editor, produced this in January which included the ad hominem.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/israel-conspiracy-peddler-craig-murray-to-address-snp-activists-tfnb7jxp9
He’s like the wind!
He is: @KieranPAndrews
‘Kieran Andrews is the Scottish political editor at The Times. He has worked in Holyrood since 2012, previously for The Courier — where he spearheaded the successful and award-winning campaign to extend free personal care to all Scots — and The Sunday Post. He has reported on the 2014 independence and 2016 Brexit referendums, as well as ten national and local elections. So far.’
I am donating,
Good luck but if the JA and AS trials are the benchmark the outcome does not look good.
Saor Alba Craig Hope you are holding strong? Stay Slan
It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.’ 100 Scots will always STANDFAST so just Donated £100 even if difficult times as this corrupt world runs on symbols-May you go in truth with the shield & might of Scotland behind you & take ‘them’ down Craig xxx
for You, like our former First Minister of SCOTLAND,Honoured Alex Elliot Anderson Salmond
WILL WIN THIS CASE IN TRUTH-HONOUR-INTEGRITY against all filthy underhand charlatans of British Nationalist violent establishment & UK government- Scotland stands with you Craig John Murray in this year of our Scotland #Arbroath700
We will endorse your casecrowd funder now on twitter, FB & blogs
Standfast Holdfast
Best wishes Laura #AlbaShield & Craig #Yesbiker
Cannot donate as donate buttons not working – help!
I will stand up for free speech and the right to say what others think and I think. We have bypassed 1984 and well on the way to Brave New World – time to change the narrative
If you have ad-blocking apps running in your browser then that might be the cause. Try turning off your ad-blocking software for Craig’s website, refresh the page once you have done so, and then see if you can donate. (You can switch the ad-blocking back on again after you donated.)
Really sorry to hear this Craig.
This is so political I wonder if you should contact your local MP? Is it Ian Lavery?
Donation made.
Good shout Aidworker – I was thinking the same. I would expect some MPs in Edinburgh to be amenable to being asked, by a whisper in the ear like, to decline to assist Craig, but I don’t imagine they are all like that.
JOE HASTIE
The whole of Scotland ??????? should be behind you Craig. This is corruption at its absolute worst. Who is behind this???!!!
All the best Craig! We’re with you in this fight for justice and a better world!
It’s great to see they at least acknowledge your blog has influence and a wide audience! They have no ground to refuse you as a journalist anymore!
The medieval nonsense that is happening will be clearly shown and the utter arrogance and abuse of power can no longer be ignored!