I suspect I should say as little as possible in the next few days. With apologies to The National, I have copied their story out from behind their firewall.
BEGINS
A FORMER diplomat has instructed his lawyers to begin preparations for an appeal to the Supreme Court after learning he had lost a contempt of court case over his reports from the trial of Alex Salmond in March last year.
Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, attended two days of the trial – at which Salmond was found innocent – and sat in the public gallery, later writing about it for his blog.
However, in January he faced a virtual contempt of court hearing before Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk, at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh.
It is now understood that a session for judgement to be delivered will be held at the High Court before Lady Dorrian, Lord Turnbull and Lord Menzies on Thursday – exactly eight weeks after the initial 90-minute hearing.
Sources close to Murray, 62, indicated that he was advised by court staff and his legal team that if he won the case, the judgement would simply be published.
However, if he lost, and particularly if a custodial sentence was probable, there would be a new hearing of the court – which has now been called.
Contempt of court carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison and an unlimited fine.
Last month, Clive Thomson, a 52-year-old from Rosyth, was jailed for six months for contempt in the same case.
Murray is expected to stand as a candidate for Action for Independence (AFI) on the Lothians list in May’s Holyrood election.
READ MORE: Craig Murray bids to lead Action For Independence’s list in the Lothians
However, if sentenced to a year or more in jail, he will be disqualified from standing.
Murray was accused of contempt over publications likely to influence the jury and with jigsaw identification of complainants.
His defence argued that if the Crown believed these were likely to influence the jury, then action should have been taken before the trial and not after.
On jigsaw identification, his counsel, John Scott QC, argued that Murray had known the identity of all the complainants for months and had taken care not to give them away.
He argued: “[Murray] was aware of the names of the complainers, even when there was no court order regarding them. But he said it would not be responsible journalism to have named them.
“The Crown appears to say there must be a deliberate campaign to drop enough hints so that the complainers can be identified.
“There is a great deal of evidence showing he was not someone who was fixated on naming the complainers and dropping hints to identify.
“The fact alone is that he knew about the names and if he wanted to name them, he could have done so.”
In the two months between the hearing and judgement, he has said on social media that the delay was taking a toll on his family and on his mental health.
One member of the Murray family told The National: “Objective evidence shows that mainstream media published far more jigsaw identification pieces than Craig and were not prosecuted.”
Asked how Murray felt about the possibility of being jailed, they said: “Well, obviously not happy.
“Nadira and he have a one-month-old son and he’s not in good health nor getting any younger.
“But never underestimate his commitment and principle – he is a lot tougher than he looks.”
ENDS
I should be grateful if you would now go to the National Website and poke about a bit so they don’t lose any advertising revenue.
—————————————————–
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
Advise you to get a full detailed medical check on any medical conditions you may have, this can be presented in mitigation of sentence
If necessary please go all the way to the ECHR: I shall support you if you do.
I have some confidence in Scottish courts still. They have been upright and correct in all the Salmond issues, and were superb in the Proroguing issue. Surely they realize too what a loss of confidence, integrity and reputation a poorly founded or apparently unfair judgement would bring with it They can be sure I think that it will go all the way to the ECHR. Any sloppyness or bias will be cruely exposed.
I cannot imagine just how they view the extraordinary behaviour of the CO and the LA.
Am I correct that in Scottish law you are not afforded ECHR access as a matter of course?
Surely time to name and shame!
A horrendous decision…
By all means appeal to the Supreme Court of the UK if you lose.
& the ECHR too, if needs be.
There are those that worship the ground Sturgeon walks on that will see what has happened to Craig Murray as a good result, those people don’t deserve independence if they can turn a blind eye to the government using the Prosecution Service as their own private enforcers to go after people they see as the enemy who’s only ‘crime’ is telling the truth. Nationalist and Unionists should both be afraid today it was Craig Murray tomorrow it might be you!
As a man of limited means I will happily chuck in a few quid to help you fight this when I get paid.
I’m not a lawyer, but IMHO you might well not be jailed at all, because Clive Thomson, as I understand, actually named names, causing Lady Dorrian to describe his offence as “blatant and deliberate”. You could hardly be described as behaving like that. So you may well get no more than a fine and a warning.
Oh, Craig – I’m so sorry to hear this! Please don’t take it amiss when I say that I would be alright with finding you guilty if all the others who have done the same or worse had been in front of a court and judgment given. Instead, I am incandescently angry that justice is being abused for political gain. I really hope that the Supreme Court accepts your appeal and then slaps down the corrupt legal apparatus in Scotland.
I’ll be making another donation on pay day.
As Clive Thomson openly published the names twice and received six months’ imprisonment. It seems unlikely that Mr Murray would be sentenced to a year or longer for what looks like a less serious disclosure.
A wee payment Mr M., I read your blog but don’t subscribe, I apologise.
Hmm. Queen Nicola exonerated in the manner of her compadre Ali Campbell. The sole criminal in the whole Salmond affair .. truthteller Craig Murray.
Just as the sole “criminal” in the US illegal war of aggression against Iraq is Julian Assange – for revealing what happened.
See the pattern?
I fear that having Craig and Julian both in jail is a big thumbs up for the establishment. Dark days indeed.
I must confess to a really queasy feeling over this. I no longer know what is right or wrong., fair or foul, putrid or just aromatic, light or dark. The sands shift beneath our feet now, all the time. We are buffeted by wild winds., we bend this way and that. I just hope something like justice prevails. Even though I am not a believer, it feels like a time to pray.
This is what happens when a culture that somewhat supports truth, honesty and honour dies. It is the nature of many human beings that they are entirely selfish and don’t care in the least what happens to others.
Put that together with a strong desire for money and power, an inclination to “network” with others of similar mind, and a sufficiently complicated system for everything to be concealed… and you get what has been happening in the USA for 150 years, in London for at least 50 years, and in Scotland for a few years now.
The surprising thing, really, is not when people behave as they are doing in Edinburgh, but when they behave decently and altruistically. That happens only under exceptional circumstances, when honourable people operate a fair system. Lose either the honourable people or the fair system, and it becomes much more like Hobbes’ war of all against all.
“…no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.
I’m not at all shocked by this decision. All along the whole farce has been a predictable giant stitch up. The pathetic performance of the committee hearing before this new decision was divided solely on party lines. No-one pressed Sturgeon on the failure to produce vital documents. Even the Labour committee member gave up after a few token attempts. The Scottish legal system has reached a new low from which I doubt it will ever recover.
This follows the usual pattern: Those who tell the truth are sidelined or jailed, and those who lie through their teeth are exonerated.
Good luck, Craig, you are a dying breed, sadly…
Never give in Never give up.
Don’t you think that, given the hamilton result, everyone might as well all give up. Let’s just all go and laugh (and drink), truth and honesty are now ironic, like the peace prize awarded to Henry Kissinger. it’s a truly seminal moment.
“… except to convictions of honour and good sense”.
There is a slight hope that this report may turn out to be wrong. But either way, it is surely clear that the institutions that facilitate such a judgment, that permit the useless Fabiano inquiry and the wholly flawed Hamilton enquiry, will never deliver anything but injustice. And parliament, whether at Holyrood or Westminster will NEVER change anything.
I’ve no income at all and am living from my savings. But I’m happy to make a further donation and will do so directly as I hate PayPal. etc.
What bleak times we live in!
“Craig Murray loses contempt of court case over reports of Alex Salmond trial”
I find the whole thing bizarre. How can a paper report the verdict of a trial before the verdict has been announced? Is that not of itself a contempt of court and a total travesty of due process? If it is not, it could only send a message to say someone who has committed an actual crime to scarper quick.
You’re right of course Crispa. But let’s be clear here; this is nothing about justice, fairness or any other misdescriptions of what British courts dole out. It’s a political statement, timed with the Hamilton and Fabiani “inquiries”. It’s the very inversion of truth and justice.
Crispa, I am afraid that “contempt of court” now means “anything that the court does not like”. Since it was presumably some insider who gave that story to the paper, no doubt that court wishes it to be published. So that’s not contempt of court.
Apparently whether an act is technically legal or illegal doesn’t matter.
Again, the rule of law as interpreted by Caligula and Ghengis Khan.
Blimey, and Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon innocent????
I don’t know what to say.
I reckon you will be fine in jail, but surely it is not going to come to that.
Nothing much shocks me now.
What is going to happen next?
Tony
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqtf34j/articles/zxv6pv4
“ reckon you will be fine in jail,”
You speak from recent experience Compo?
Just deserts! You were nasty to me after I criticised your glorious England (having previously defended you). How do you like England now, Mr Murray? A nice, long, sentence hopefully – should give you plenty of time to gush about those glorious summer days of your youth, and the sound of leather on willow. You love politics – and all the evil that entails! You believe that an “elite” should rule over the rest of us; of course, you include yourself in that elite. Now, you get to live the dream!
ChaosDefined ,
That was bit harsh, but some of it is true.
I disagree with some of his political views too.
But Craig Murray is an honest, and very brave man of integrity…and for telling the truth (as he sees it), he is probably going to jail
Which means absolutely anyone can go to jail, if they in anyway offend, the Psychopaths in Power.
Tony
Desert song
The nasty gloating
From the twisted mind
Of Chaos defined
Deserves a stoating.
Power corrupts & absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Stay strong Craig & may the force be with you.
It’s a long road without a bend in it & I don’t believe this is over by a long shot.
Craig,
This is absolutely shocking.
If you need funds let us know.
We’ll have your cell like a florist’s shop!
But it won’t come to that.
You are Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time. The truth shall prevail, eventually.
I am absolutely disgusted by this. Utterly disgraceful.
I would suggest you could use this moment to strategise a counterattack. Start two funds, one for you and your family to pay for an upcoming fine, support for your family if you have to spend time in jail and for legal fees. I will contribute generously to this. Start a second fund and found a Scottish Republican Party and use your appeal as a publicity stunt to muster support for your vision of Scotland. Give public talks and press conferences during these next few months. Go at these cunts hell for leather. Call for Salmond to come back into the fight. Cherry, MacNeil and MacAskill. Time to turn the tide. Everyone I know is disgusted and politically lost.
Independence is about to go on the backburner for 30 years. There is no doubt that today is a victory for the union.
I’m genuinely shocked. Not a legal expert but this seems to be little more than a vindictive prosecution of a journalist for doing his job. I’m not sure what evidence they feel they have for a conviction either.
Of course there’s no absolute confirmation that the result is a conviction or indeed imprisonment. It certainly wouldn’t be a good look for them to imprison a high profile journalist.
Whatever happens, good luck.
“… this seems to be little more than a vindictive prosecution of a journalist for doing his job”.
One could find many parallels in the history of 18th century Britain. Or, of course, the Shah’s Persia, or the USSR.
This all seems very harsh. But it could be worse – at least you haven’t ‘jumped’ bail. That is the second worst crime, the pinnacle being theft of a loaf of bread to feed the family.
Well, it has come to the point, I guess, when we are all now potential political prisoners. Like others here, I am shocked, but not surprised at the flailing arms of the imperialist monster, wanting to snatch up and eat all truth before it is understood. I too think there is more honour in naming and shaming, as that is probably the only way to ensure that the truth comes out now. Otherwise, false accusers which are the snottiest kind of human being get off the hook, as do their more heinous puppeteers.
Until we turn back the clock on a very advanced state of British fascism, we should all be protesting in the streets. Sickening to see the Bristol mayor preaching to people on the streets when the real vandalists and plunderers that need restraint are free to do as they please. At the moment, I would have to applaud any form of protest, I think, never mind the cause or effect. Because any and all protests are a sign that things are not alright.
Fingers crossed for you… the other guy who got six months looks to have actually named them. So there’s still hope against hope…
If Sturgeon falls this week then it’s much more likely that Craig stays out of jail than if she roars triumphant.
A lot can happen in a few days, but one thing that’s happened today is that James Hamilton’s conclusion regarding whether or not Sturgeon misled the Scottish parliament has been published. Hamilton is such a card, and he must surely be a right laugh at parties. He says he reckons it’s “difficult to think of any convincing reason” for why she might have concealed her 29 March meeting if she had remembered it. He should get out some more.
What fee has this joker charged for this whitewash?
Got to wonder what Liz Lloyd thinks of it all.
N_
How much has this joker charged?
Well apart from his fee and his expenses he clearly sees Scottish independence as a threat to Northern Ireland’s Union with England. He clearly sees no problem with his Scottish counterpart James Wolffe sitting in cabinet as well as using his CPS powers to sweep evidence under the carpet.
More a meeting of minds, Imho, than bribery.
After all , how bent would you have to be as Chief Prosecutor in Northern Ireland when you knew full well that England orchestrated all the sectarian terrorism in Northern Ireland, and yet England has never admitted to its double-dealing wrecking of the republican cause.
Bentness is his bent. No need for anything else.
As I understand it, Hamilton has been acting as an “independent adviser” to the Scottish Government led by Nicola Sturgeon, standing in for SG lawyers who are actually members of the SG and whose noses would shoot forward like Pinocchio’s if they claimed they were “independent”. The SG will obviously welcome the report and say its leader is now “in the clear”, and their loyal press are already saying she’s been “exonerated”. But isn’t it up to the Scottish Parliament itself, i.e. MSPs, to decide whether a government minister has misled it? If not, then what a f***ing joke Holyrood is.
Politics is nasty. It’s like that in England, too.
Welcome to North Korea.
Or is it Uganda in the mid-70s?
Dear Craig and fellow readers, an important shaft of light has penetrated todays gloom. On the Jimmy Dore Show titled ” Assange Defenders Starting New Social Media App “PanQuake” (if someone could post link) thanks Mary for help on last request. Suzie Dawson explains to Jimmy Dore how she along with Bill Binney (ex NSA) and Shannon OBrian are working at creating ‘own block chain’ where all users can see permanent interactions and are no longer products but customers. Not spied on nor their data sold on. Not sensored or moderated. Any action done is is open to all users. Initial fee is 5dollars month. To help fund ” gogetfunding.com/panquake
Also should read Shaun OBrian.
Sorry to hear this. They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Lets hope it’s so with this news. Good luck Craig.