UPDATE
My new appeal for funds to continue my legal defence has now reached £42,300 of the £75,000 target. I am extremely grateful to all of the 2,053 people who have so far contributed to the top-up. The moral support from those who cannot afford to contribute is also very greatly appreciated. That is now £117,300 of the £150,000 needed in total.
I have today received a bill from my legal team for £60,563.40 in fees to date in defending the contempt of court charge against me for my reporting of the Alex Salmond trial.
In addition to this, I have paid a separate legal fee for a QC to draft a petition for a court to consider whether the accusers’ anonymity should be continued by the courts, given their continued participation in a high intensity public campaign against Alex Salmond and effectively against the verdict of the jury. I have also paid to commission the Panelbase poll proving that my blog was in no way a primary source of information for those who believe they have identified accusers.
In total to date £69,052 has been spent. Which means about £5,000 remains in the pot, and the main trial itself is currently scheduled for 21 January.
The Crown has adopted a policy of simply blocking everything the defence seeks to do: objecting to my witnesses, objecting to my own affidavit, objecting to the release of documentary evidence. In consequence there have been three preliminary hearings. Those who listened to last week’s hearing will know that these have resolved none of the questions at issue. The Crown constantly shifts its ground, or submits draft positions, and has not yet clarified the evidential basis for its charges, while blocking my evidence. They have objected to all of my witnesses being heard, and to the opinion poll being considered.
This has the appearance of what is known in the US as “Lawfare”. My financial resources are drained and there is a huge impact on me in terms of my time taken up – frankly very much worse than I anticipated – and an emotional strain too.
As a reminder, this is the list of documents from the Salmond case disclosure my which defence is seeking to access, and which the Crown is refusing to release.
To be plain, this is material which I know for certain to exist. I am not fishing. The Crown has admitted its existence in forbidding Alex Salmond’s own solicitors from releasing it to anybody, (including Alex). Much of this was kept out of the Salmond trial itself as “collateral evidence”, as I explained here.
The most likely next court hearing is to request the Court orders the Crown to produce this material. In effect, each court hearing costs about £20,000 in legal fees. It is now plain that I need at least double the £75,000 originally raised to get me through the trial. I am really very sorry to have to ask again, but I therefore need to request further contributions to my defence fund at this point.
I am deeply conscious that, the legal battle having caused my blogging output and depth of research to fall these last few weeks, there has been a drop-off in readership and in subscriptions, so I am handicapped in making this appeal precisely by the very legal battle I am appealing to try to fight. I also do realise these are hard times for people. I do not want anyone to give anything if it causes them even the slightest hardship.
I will post updates on progress from this renewed funding appeal. I have asked the lawyers to produce a version of their fee note which can be published.
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Account name
MURRAY CJ
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very happy to again donate to your pot and will continue to help as often as needed…just say the word
thank you for putting yourself through this Kafkaesque charade on all our behalfs
chris
I am not happy about it at all, but I donated 30.
The way I see it, the case is simple: a commoner offended an honorable person, highly ranked servant of The Crown. The only proper response would be to prostrate in front of the Crown authorities, admit the error and beg for a lenient flogging (sub-lethal). But no, Craig keeps inciting other peasants and, audacity itself! tries to bring some of them to the proceedings. Nothing short of a rebellion attempt.
Lacking any honorable ancestry, I must admit that I am feeble minded and have a sympathy for Craig, however destructive it can be for the social order, with the rabble rising and life becoming solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Done! More to follow as finances allow. I hope justice prevails.
Another wee donation made… Keep the chin up Craig… and keep the fight up.. Stay Strong.
Donated
Are there any worthier causes in Britain?
Just donated again as I am, thankfully, still employed and this is such an important cause.
Perhaps the rules should be amended so that public officials who deliberately drag out the process or engage in malicious prosecutions should have to reimburse the public purse out of their own pockets for cases lost or thrown out. There’s little incentive for them to play fair when they are playing with taxpayers’ money. Quite the opposite.
Stay healthy and strong. Best of luck.
Will anyone please help/correct me in my attempt at a timeline of this Salmond case:
8 Jan 2019 Salmond took the government to court over the handling of sexual harassment claims. The Scottish Government has admitted it mishandled complaints in relation to sexual harassment allegations made against Alex Salmond from two allegations which were made in January 2018.
24 January 2019 Ex-Scottish first minister Alex Salmond charged with attempted rape, he made no plea and was released on bail. ( anyone know how much £s ?) No trial date was set.
??? January? 2019 Salmond launches a judicial review against the Scottish government ?
13 August 2019 A spokesman for the Scottish government confirmed that a final settlement of £512,250 had been paid out for legal costs arising from the judicial review case ->BBC. ( anyone know if that amount ONLY covered Alex legal expenses for that judicial review?)
21 November 2019 High Court in Edinburgh preliminary hearing before a full trial.
23 March 2020 Alex Salmond cleared of all sexual assault charges
18 August 2020 Salmond Inquiry begins ?
Did Alex pay for his own defence for his trial from which he was found ‘not guilty’ on 23 March 2020 ? if so anyone know how much it cost him ?
Are Alex’s hands ‘tied’ because of this Holyrood Inquiry ?
Why, as Salmond said outside the court after being cleared of the charges, was evidence he would have liked to seen led not allowed, can he not action that evidence now or does the Holyrood Inquiry preclude it ?
As Alex claimed “At some point that information, that facts and that evidence will see the light of day” and said due to the pandemic effects at that time it would not be “this day”.
My thinking is if Alex exposed that ‘information, facts and evidence’ to the light of day, it could take the pressure off and perhaps shutdown this attack on Craig. ( This Holyrood Inquiry and the covid-19 problems could go on for a long time. )
Parenti,
a quick answer to some of your questions. Alex did have to pay for his own defence. It is not for me to tell you how much it cost him but it is many hundreds of thousands.
The evidence that proves who was behind the conspiracy against him includes the list of documents above. Most of these were not allowed in the Salmond trial as “collateral evidence”. I am afraid you have to click on the links in my piece and read through it all to understand. Alex, like me, is currently forbidden to produce the evidence by the Crown because, having been released to him on disclosure, it remains Crown property.
The Holyrood committee is not actually into the Salmond affair. It is barred from looking at individual cases, and remember it is a group of politicians. Whether it actually wants to find the truth is a moot point.
You forget that most of the relevant information cannot be released without identifying the alphabet coven. Their anonymity is effectively immunity from prosecution for life. Something that can only have been in the gift of Sturgeon to arrange.
Which is something I can’t really understand as the judge was perfectly happy for the public to be told that one of the women had red hair, worked closely with Alex Salmond in 2014, and was rejected as a candidate for a Northeast constituency. We also know that the perjurer in chief had a broken arm that summer.
If you can’t work out who she was from those clues then I’d book a funeral post haste as brain death has set in.
Good morning Ambassador Murray,
Just a quick message of support. Justice is on trial here. Ironically, if you lose, you win. Can you imagine the uproar that will occur if the British State do a “Tony Hall” on you? By that I mean Lord Hall’s BBC double standards as directed towards Stuart Campbell and Wings Over Scotland and narrated by Alex Salmond: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qsgGRszAXKA
If you win, you win. Seems like stating the obvious, but there is a gravitas to winning that will have an effect far beyond the local difficulty. There will be enough in your experience for a post-graduate doctoral thesis.
But as one who has experienced the worst of what you face, it really isn’t that bad. My case was different to yours. My moral victory was comforting on a lesser scale. If you receive rough justice then we are in Mahatma Ghandi territory. Okay not the million people marches, but the fan-blades are already turning as a ton of excrement heads towards them.
Craig, the financial pain is about as bad as it gets and even with this you see an economic miracle as cumulative amounts are headed to your Legal Lifeboat Fund? People are ostensibly good and decent. We abhor injustice. It is quite an impressive phenomenon to see folk put their hands in their pockets and actually put funds towards remedying injustice.
All of this will be included in the “reckoning”. When Sturgeon has gone and the Wokeists are but a bad stain on a once pristine carpet; when we get our Independence for Scotland; when Sturgeon’s over-promoted Hapless Hamza is removed from doing a piss poor job (as they term it in the Army), there will be time enough to sort out our country.
In these current troubles, there are VERY brave individuals, Alex Salmond, Stuart Campbell and Craig Murray who, in full knowledge of the power and reach of the British Empire, still speak truth to power.
Craig, you are not alone in this. Many of us are with you. A significant portion have caught (and won) battles against injustice.
You will be alright.
Very best regards, Ally S.
There are countries where politicians usually expect a whopping great bung to start the wheels of justice turning. Obviously Scotland is now one of them.
In all good conscience it would be highly irregular if the politician in charge took a whopping big bung from only one side, in this case the US department that wants to extradite Julian Assange .
Only if they receive an equally satisfying bung from your side will the scales of justice be balanced, and justice be seen to be done.
Delete as necessary.
Can’t manage to be as generous as last time. But I’ve scraped together three figures. And no, the last two aren’t “99p” before somebody asks.
Keep us posted as to how the appeal is going. I’m sure if you’re struggling I’ll discover that I could actually have managed a little more.
50 pounds chipped in again. This is the right time to pay you back for a lot of free reading.
Dear Craig,
Hope all goes well for you; I’ve chipped in £20 so hope you get sufficient monies soon.
Best wishes,
Craig
Craig you are one of the bravest people I know. It’s a privilege to read your blog. I have just donated £100 to your legal defence. Yours ever A
That’s a wee bit added to the fund, I hope to be able to give more soon, funnily enough awaiting a court decision against a third party for compensation and damages.
Sorry for my lack of financial contribution. £70K, going on £150K, seems a hell of a price to pay to defend against what precedent might decree to be little more than a £10 fine and a year’s probation – particularly as you should not be tried twice for the same offence and have already been punished by being thrown out the gallery.
That said, the inappropriate use of divorce laws (contempt of a court order), the inappropriate use of a court order (to control the general population rather than an individual or disruptive attendees), the inappropriate bias of the prosecution and the inappropriate (corrupted) adoption of Kyprianou v Cyprus (judgement and process treated as a separate case and in a different court, but by the same judge and prosecutor) does tend to suggest that your liberty may depend on the ability to prove definitively that there can be no contempt of the type charged under Scots law in any event (which, simply by nature of its existence, must itself hold contempt of the Roman and Norman Courts, and by extension all illiberal Code and dic-tat, amongst its greatest and most noble virtues), so perhaps those fees are not without merit after all..
What a surprise, they are trying to drain you. Donation is not a problem. You are doing a terrific job, keep it going.
Donated twice 10 pounds. More to follow on weekend. You, MoA and maybe OffGuardian are the best. Not a commenter, but read these sites each day.
Craig, keep up the fight, but try to find time to unwind and relax if you can. I’ll make a contribution when my pension arrives in a couple of weeks.
You have my 100% support, Craig. Don’t let their manipulations get to you, keep strong and well, much love
Done.
Craig shouldn’t you explore the option of suing the person or persons who are blocking your membership of the NUJ for defamation and the NUJ to disclose their names and their assertions against you?
£1000 donated. Don’t hesitate to appeal again Craig
I’m trying to make a donation via credit card on your donate button but it won’t let me get past the ‘country selection’ please can you get your techie people to look at it as I don’t have a paypal account and don’t want to do bank transfer .
Craig, managed to donate by using google as my browser rather than my usual firefox (not sure what that’s all about but I’m no tecchie head). Anyway, all power to you! I think they’re trying to bleed your funds dry on this case by their ‘lawfare’ as you say. Please set up a Go Fund me page so peeps can share it far and wide.
Please keep everyone updated so that we can keep the momentum going to up your funds.
This travesty of justice needs to be front and centre in people’s minds.
Just remember you’re fighting the good fight for justice, fairness and free speech.
Donated and will again when needed. With you, Craig. xo Billy
I have increased my small subscription, Craig, willingly. Keep going.
“… I have paid a separate legal fee for a QC to draft a petition for a court to consider whether the accusers’ anonymity should be continued by the courts, given their continued participation in a high intensity public campaign against Alex Salmond and effectively against the verdict of the jury.”
Thanks for this in particular Craig. I’m keeping you and Alex Salmond, and this whole business in my prayers. That just ice may be done and be seen to be done!
small amount donated – more if needed. Best of luck
Subscribed again – I hope my little bit helps. Let us know if you need more.
It’s an indictment of the Scottish legal system that it costs so much to mount a defence. Could the ordinary person accused of something similar hope to defend themselves?
Maybe the legal team could contribute too?
Now there’s an idea!
Subscribed to the blog and have purchased your Sikunder Burnes book, which looks fascinating.
So sorry you are going through this ordeal and good luck fighting the charge.