Keeping Freedom Alive 1709

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I want to make one or two points for you to ponder while I am in jail. This is the last post until about Christmas; we are not legally able to post anything while I am imprisoned. But the Justice for Craig Murray Campaign website is now up and running and will start to have more content shortly. Fora and comments here are planned to stay open.

I hope that one possible good effect of my imprisonment might be to coalesce opposition to the imminent abolition of jury trials in sexual assault cases by the Scottish Government, a plan for which Lady Dorrian – who wears far too many hats in all this – is front and centre. We will then have a situation where, as established by my imprisonment, no information at all on the defence case may be published in case it contributes to “jigsaw identification”, and where conviction will rest purely on the view of the judge.

That is plainly not “open justice”, it is not justice at all. And it is even worse than that, because the openly stated aim of abolishing juries is to increase conviction rates. So people will have their lives decided not by a jury of their peers, but by a judge who is acting under specific instruction to increase conviction rates.

It is often noted that conviction rates in rape trials are too low, and that is true. But have you ever heard this side of the argument? In Uzbekistan under the Karimov dictatorship, when I served there, conviction rates in rape trials were 100%. In fact very high conviction rates are a standard feature of all highly authoritarian regimes worldwide, because if the state prosecutes you then the state gets what it wants. The wishes of the state in such systems vastly outweigh the liberty of the individual.

My point is simply this. You cannot judge the validity of a system simply by high conviction rates. What we want is a system where the innocent are innocent and the guilty found guilty; not where an arbitrary conviction target is met.

The answer to the low conviction rates in sexual assault trials is not simple. Really serious increases in resources for timely collection of evidence, for police training and specialist units, for medical services, for victim support, all have a part to play. But that needs a lot of money and thought. Just abolishing juries and telling judges you want them to convict is of course free, or even a saving.

The right to have the facts judged in serious crime allegations by a jury of our peers is a glory of our civilisation. It is the product of millennia, not lightly to be thrown away and replaced by a huge increase in arbitrary state power. That movement is of course fueled by current fashionable political dogma which is that the victim must always be believed. That claim has morphed from an initial meaning that police and first responders must take accusations seriously, to a dogma that accusation is proof and it is wrong to even question the evidence, which is of course to deny the very possibility of false accusation.

That is precisely the position which Nicola Sturgeon has taken over the Alex Salmond trial; to be accused is to be guilty, irrespective of the defence evidence. That people are oblivious to the dangers of the dogma that there should be no defence against sexual assault allegations, is to me deeply worrying. Sexual allegation is the most common method that states have used to attack dissidents for centuries, worldwide and again especially in authoritarian regimes. Closer to home, think of history stretching from Roger Casement to Assange and Salmond.

Why would we remove the only barrier – a jury of ordinary citizens – that can stop abuse of state power?

I am worried that this abolition of juries will have been enacted by the Scottish Parliament, even before I am out of jail. I am worried Labour and the Lib Dems will support it out of fashionable political correctness. I am worried an important liberty will disappear.

I want to touch on one other aspect of liberty in my own imprisonment that appears not understood, or perhaps simply neglected, because somehow the very notion of liberty is slipping from our political culture. One point that features plainly in the troll talking points to be used against me, recurring continually on social media, is that I was ordered to take down material from my blog and refused.

There is an extremely important point here. I have always instantly complied with any order of a court to remove material. What I have not done is comply with instructions from the Crown or Procurator Fiscal to remove material. Because it is over 330 years since the Crown had the right of censorship in Scotland without the intervention of a judge.

It sickens me that so many Scottish Government backed trolls are tweeting out that I should have obeyed the instructions of the Crown. That Scotland has a governing party which actively supports the right of the Crown to exercise unrestrained censorship is extremely worrying, and I think a sign both of the lack of respect in modern political culture for liberties which were won by people being tortured to death, and of the sheer intellectual paucity of the current governing class.

But then we now learn that Scotland has a government which was prepared not only to be complicit in exempting the Crown from climate change legislation, but also complicit in hushing up the secret arrangement, so I am not surprised.

What is even more terrifying in my case is that the Court explicitly states that I should have followed the directions of the Crown Office in what I did and did not publish, and my failure to not publish as the Crown ordered is an aggravating factor in my sentencing.

If the Crown thinks something I write is in contempt and I think it is not, the Crown and I should stand as equals in court and argue our cases. There should be no presumption I ought to have obeyed the Crown in the first place. That Scottish “justice” has lost sight of this is disastrous, though perhaps as much from stupidity as malice.

My next thought on my trial is to emphasise again the dreadful doctrine Lady Dorrian has now enshrined in law, that bloggers should be held to a different (by implication higher) standard in law than the mainstream media (the judgement uses exactly those terms), because the mainstream media is self-regulated.

This doctrine is used to justify jailing me when mainstream media journalists have not been jailed for media contempt for over half a century, and also to explain why I have been prosecuted where the mainstream media, who were provably responsible for far more jigsaw identification, were not prosecuted.

This is dreadful law, and my entire legal team are frankly astonished that the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on this point. This excellent article by Jonathan Cook explains further the chilling implications.

Those articles which the Court ordered me to take down, have been taken down. But I was not ordered to take down this one, which was found not to be in contempt of court. I was also not ordered to take down my affidavits, which though slightly redacted are still extremely valuable. I swore to the truth of every word and I stick by that. At the time I published these, far less was known about the Salmond affair than is known now, and I believe you will find it well worth reading them again in the light of your current state of wider knowledge – absolutely nothing to do with learning identities, but to do with what really happened on the whole plot to destroy Alex Salmond (something the judgement states I am allowed to say).

Finally I urge you to consider this truly remarkable speech from Kenny MacAskill MP. Scotland’s former Justice Secretary, and consider its quite staggering implications. It tells you everything you want to know about the British Establishment’s capture of the Scottish government, that the mainstream media felt no need to report the main points he was making, which constitute a simply astonishing outline of corrupt abuse of power.

An explanation: this blog is going dark because I cannot by law publish from prison or conduct a business from prison. Access to this blog has always been free and open and subscriptions have always been a voluntary contribution and not a purchase. It is understood that all new and continuing subscriptions from today, until we go live again, are voluntary contributions to the welfare of my family and not in exchange for anything.

I am afraid one off contributions to the defence fund are also still urgently needed. Legal costs so far paid amount to over £200,000 and continue to rise as we head towards the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which has to be via another Scottish Court called the nobile officium. Astonishingly, over 13,000 individuals from over 120 countries have contributed to the legal defence fund. People all over the world value freedom and realise the terrible precedents established by this case must be overturned.

We are equally grateful for all donations and all really do help – donations of £5 or less total over £30,000. But I must mention the special generosity of Roger Waters and Vivienne Westwood, and the anonymous individual who gave one bitcoin. 80% of the fund is reserved for legal fees, but up to 20% may be used to fund campaigning to raise public and political awareness of the human rights issues involved.




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1,709 thoughts on “Keeping Freedom Alive”

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    • DunGroanin

      Thanks MJ that is perfect, maybe Craig can be persuaded to post it with a transcript.

      It is magnificent and as I expected his time inside will benefit all Scotland including its neglected poorest and forgotten.

  • NotARobot

    Time to sniff back our tears from last August.
    Welcome back Craig.
    All of the best to your family and relatives.

    • Wikikettle

      A great man emerges from the company of the poorest in society. As Craig said, the Scottish Establishment has failed to humiluate him and succeeded in humiliating themselves. He spoke on behalf of the prisoners and their lot in life, for drowned migrants and why they leave their ruined countries. I hope the people of Scotland recognise in Craig all that is good and have a mass movement for change. The Establishment gets away with its rule by the silence of the majority. So many of the people who came to greet Craig must have travelled great distances to show their support. These are the people who can go home and say they were there when the great Craig Murray emerged from prison. Respect to you all.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Craig Murray,

    From Prisonland ( where you never belonged) – to – blogland ( where you do belong) – WELCOME HOME.

  • Tatyana

    Mr.Murray is out! Isn’t he looking like Santa Claus with this white beard? Good. Great speach and thanks for live streaming, hope now he has good time with his family.

  • glenn_nl

    Great to see Craig out, and so good to see his spirit undiminished. I trust he will take a few days to get his head together before feeling there are duties incumbent upon him to the rest of us here. From what I saw in his speech, the authorities have made a powerful prison reformer for themselves to contend with! I do look forward to hearing/ reading his perspectives in due course.

  • Kitbee

    Congratulations to Craig and his family on his release from Saughton. I will raise a dram to that tonight.

  • Ingwe

    Really pleased to read that Mr Murray has been released and is home. I’m afraid I was suffering an anxiety that I’ve lived with for most of my life after having relatives and friends released from South African prisons where they had been incarcerated under the 90 day detention act, only to be immediately re-arrested.

    The Scots judiciary and authorities have been so vindictive that I half expected a re-arrest.

    I hope Mr Murray has a good rest and doesn’t feel too pressured to write posts to satisfy our appetites. I’m sure we’ll excuse him some private time with his family.

  • Boindub

    Craig, Welcome back. Your place in the pantheon of Scottish heroes is secure. It is easy to be brave on another mans wounds but you went the extra mile and ten thousand more. May it bring you peace, happiness and lead your beloved Scotland to freedom behind you.
    Boindub

  • Jm

    You’re now in the best place you could be Craig,in the warm loving embrace of your family and friends.
    So very typical of you that much of your speech outside Saughton focused on the plight of others less fortunate or caught in the jaws of a very unfair system.Respect!
    The beard really suits you btw 😉
    When you’ve rested well please just say the word about fundraising for your case in the European Court of Human Rights.
    Many will be only too happy to help.

  • Jimmeh

    Tremendous speech! He’s full of piss and vinegar, I’m pleased to see. If you’re going to do that, Craig, I’ll follow you to the ECHR.

  • Shatnersrug

    Craig, I’m so glad you’re home safe. Your speech was breathtaking and your beard was awesome!

    I still want you to move to Dublin, but Edinburgh is a hard place to leave. I hope you guys can rest up, and please say if you need to do another fundraiser, sure we’re all more than happy to help

  • BrianFujisan

    Great Day for Craig’s Freedom..
    I’ve heard Craig Speak on numerous occasions, At Marches, Rallies, And I think that’s the best I have heard..Not all about independence.. But a Big Chest of Humanity.

    Rest up a while now Craig. Great Stuff.

  • pete

    Welcome back Craig, I hope that after you have taken some time to recover what what must have been an ordeal you will be able to expand on your comments on release about the greenwashing event in Glasgow, the plight of those unfortunates who find prison to be a revolving door due to our archaic laws regarding addiction, the state of the gravy train that is the SNP and all the other issues that get ignored or sidelined by our so called free press.
    More power to your elbow.

  • Cubby

    The worst aspect of Craig’s imprisonment is the time he has lost with his children, particularly his newborn. You never get that time back.

    Shame on Sturgeon, her Lord Advocate, his COPFS, his judge, and her Justice Secretary.

    Shameful.

  • nevermind

    Many thanks to MJ for providing the link to a great speech by the most honest journalist this country has seen for decades. Relax and recharge. Love the beard and the mane which will probably be sheared off in a few days. Good to see so many people come out to give you a moral boost to shake off the Saughton dust.

    Welcome back Craig,,,, bear hug

    Have been reading a lot about the shutting down of SNP internal democracy by the top woke echelon, they are copying Boris governing by edict and they both ride the covid control wave that covers all other stories. Today was a classic as the BBC tried its best to make Boris into the Booster jab king, the effort that trumps all other failures.
    The age of consequence is here and it will not let go of those who failed us until they fall by the wayside.

    • Squeeth

      I enjoyed the bits where he stuck it to the Snat regime for its dirty little practice of imprisoning the poor and the ill, rather than the rich and the bad.

      • Jimmy Riddle

        squeeth – your wikipedia editing skills are better than mine. Could you get Craig back as one of the notable inmates of Saughton? Somebody clearly didn’t like to see this mentioned and has removed it. It’s probably also a good idea to mention that the prison now has a fantastic library and indicating where it came from.

        • Clark

          I suggest that someone manually restore the original addition made at 18:46, 2 August 2021 because it’s the most neutral and informative, respecting editor Keith-264’s subsequent alphabetical sorting, and in their edit summary invite other editors (eg. the one who didn’t log in but at 11:00, 1 December 2021 deleted the more recent addition) to seek consensus on the article’s Talk Page rather than deleting again.

          Bit of a silly game happening on that page… and Philip Cross copy-editing very responsibly, with none of the silliness apparently his fault. It’s a funny old world sometimes.

    • MI0

      Thank you for this link Sam.

      My god, what a terrific speech, Craig. I’ve really missed your take on the s***storm around us.

      Power to you. Welcome back.

    • Tony_0pmoc

      I actually heard most of his speech, on my Sennheisers. Thanks ever so much for whoever recorded it, and especially the transcript, of what Craig said about COP26, some of which to my surprise I completely agree with. I think Craig has learnt a lot in jail. He can now see more clearly through most of this Greenshit….and The Wealthiest People in The World in Control of it.

      Is Doune The Rabbit Hole on?

      Tony

  • DunGroanin

    Monbiot rides out with typical groaniad limited hangout.
    Says nothing about trials without Jury.
    Jailing for being a blogger.
    Or the mass decimation of Labour Party members and MP’s never mind Corbyn.
    See that he hasn’t mentioned what GKH Starmer is doing except aiding and abetting the Crown State in daily more fascism.

    Some of this will be eventually dealt with at the ECHR with CM’s case – I am building a small war chest for when he calls for ammo!

    • nevermind

      Thanks for the transcript Sam. I will follow Dungroanin’s plan to boost the ECHR case and hope that all those who can afford more, to prepare for the moment when Mrs. Dorian gets her comeuppance.

  • Lysias

    Let us hope there is similarly good news about Julian Assange, a decision in whose case is said to be imminent.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Craig,

    I was delighted to see you Free. If it had been Belmarsh, I might have made it there.

    You Look Great

    FATHER CHRISTMAS

    I saw multiple versions, and I thank the guy, who got most of your speech in a howling gale.

    Hopefully, next at Belmarsh, with The Release of Julian Assange, and I will finally shake your hand.

    Have a Wonderful Christmas with your Family

    Tony

  • BrianFujisan

    Thank you Sam for the Transcript..Helps when one has Shitty hearing.

    Sorry about the Crazy Indy Live Feed Everyone ..Yikes…
    A wee Haiku –

    Craig released from Jail

    And His Touching Heartfelt Speech

    True Humanity.

    • M.J.

      You’re good at these! Maybe you should write a book of them. I can’t resist having a go:

      “What he said”

      Now released, Craig said
      Most inmates, born poor, should not
      Have been there at all

      “Haiku book for human rights”

      If many readers
      Of this blog try it, maybe
      They could fill a book!

      • BrianFujisan

        Great First attempts M.J… Syllable count Perfect.

        I really should try to self Publish. I have a big collection of Haiku’s.. and a decent body of conventional Poetry too.. My 2022.

        And a Blog Volume would be Quite something Eh.

    • Antonym

      From Craig’s speech I have to conclude that Scotland is the coldest banana republic; only his prison wardens had warmth. With Sturgeon ruling backed by MSM, Judiciary and Mi5/6, no Scot can complain about “third world” rule in any EX colonies in other continents.

      • Jimmy Riddle

        Antonym – except that Scotland does not grow its own bananas and isn’t a republic. All the disadvantages of a banana republic and none of the advantages.

        The fact that Commissar Sturgeon managed to get the top job indicates to me that independence – which involves erecting yet another barrier – won’t solve any problems at all – and everything that Craig said about the Scottish prison service and the deprived communities in Scotland applies equally well to huge swathes of England.

        One thing that the migrant crisis illustrates, at least to me, is that we need fewer borders rather than more borders.

        • Jules Orr

          A decidedly minority view among unionism’s blue and orange hordes, Jimmy.

          Welcome back, Craig.

          • Jimmy Riddle

            Jules – true, but nobody has ever accused me of being either blue or orange. (Unionist yes – I simply don’t see why any good solutions only apply north of the border).

        • Henry Smith

          The problems Craig alludes to are not limited to Scotland, they are UK wide. The Scottish element is just a distraction from the fact that all the problems of poverty, prison policy, climate, political prisoners, etc. emanate from Whitehall and the regime in London.
          Not to excuse them but, Sturgeon and her acolytes are puppets.

          • Jimmy Riddle

            Henry – well, ummm – can’t we try to be a bit more ambitious and do something about Westminster? Rather than simply declaring independence and doing something about Scotland only.
            I’d like to understand how Sturgeon and her acolytes actually got where they are today.
            My feeling, right now, is that Boris Johnson is not only a clown, but is widely seen to be a clown that NOW is the time to think about change at Westminster.

          • Henry Smith

            Jimmy R.
            I have absolutely no idea what ‘we’ could do about the incompetent, corrupt and dishonest regime in Westminster – apart from a solution that would involve pitchforks and burning torches.
            ‘We’ have a ‘democracy’ that is based on a biased FPTP voting system where you get to choose the colour of the tory party that you want to oppress you: Blue, Red, Yellow or Green they are all tories. There was a glimmer of hope with Corbyn but that was stopped dead by the dark forces.
            Unless the people rise up, there is no hope. And, Scotland will only achieve independence when the UK and US decide that Scotland is of no further use to their agenda.
            Scots should note, the Irish weren’t given independence, they took it.

          • Jimmy Riddle

            Henry – well, I have seriously though about the pitchfork option. That was in the context of the Scottish judiciary – and also the English judiciary (responsible for having Julian Assange banged up in Belmarsh).

            It may happen without pitchforks – who knows. I think they crossed a line by jailing Craig Murray. People whom you wouldn’t expect, people who like a nice safe life, who seem to like having their heads in the clouds, are beginning to take notice. They’ve gone too far.

            The pitchforks may not be necessary. I found a very nice article on Information Clearing House about the JFK assassination.

            http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56883.htm

            I do understand that sources like `Information Clearing House’ are still very much minority, but the minority is getting larger truth about the CIA is reaching more and more people. Things won’t happen instantly, but I’m convinced it is going in the right direction and it is only a matter of time.

        • Alf Baird

          Every country has its ain midden tae sort oot Jimmy, tho Scotland’s midden is made worse because the big banana bully country next door keeps on sticking its oar in to plunder Scotland’s goodies and mystify the natives. Things are made even more complicated because Scotland’s elite aye try their best to become Englishmen/wummin and look down on their own Scottish culture, Scots language and people; many of whom end up with what is known as a ‘colonial mindset’ causing some to reject their own liberation. This is broadly what we know as colonialism, which oddly enough is the main motivation and rationale behind calls for independence…….

          Craig, I hope you received a copy of my book ‘Doun-Hauden’ which I sent to you at Saughton, though I think you already had a copy. I will happily contribute to any appeals. Best wishes to you and your family. In a sense I think I wrote this with you in mind, post the ALBA conference in Greenock: https://grousebeater.wordpress.com/2021/11/19/the-case-for-freedom-2/

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