UPDATE The Cabinet Minister who the judges met, delaying the start of my appeal, may have been Dominic Raab, Lord Chancellor and Justice Minister of England and Wales. Raab was in Edinburgh that day discussing with the Scottish Government the Tory plans to ditch the European Convention on Human Rights. What Lord Justice General Carloway said was that the hearing was delayed because the Scottish Government had called to set up an unscheduled meeting with a cabinet minister. We had all presumed he meant a member of the Scottish cabinet; perhaps not.
Secondly, my former QC John Scott has been in touch to say that he had no doubt that my sworn affidavits were accepted as evidence in the case, and that was the outcome of his discussions on the matter with the Crown. As I said below, I had found the Crown’s assertion to the contrary baffling.
Both these points highlight the extraordinary fact that there is no official recording or transcript of the court proceeding and the public were excluded. Our offer to have a transcript taken and produced at our own expense (as is done by the Assange legal team at his hearings) was also refused.
I should stress that this is not unusual; we were told it is the rule that there are no recordings or transcripts of such proceedings in Scotland. So what happened is whatever the judges say happened, and there is nothing that can be produced to prove otherwise. The more I go down the dark hole of Scotland’s legal system, the more it stinks.
26 February 07.13 END OF UPDATE
Today I was the “petitioner” as my appeal was heard in Court No. 1 of the Court of Session by the nobile officium. This sounds like something from Harry Potter, perhaps an annex of the Ministry of Magic, but is actually the Scottish legal system’s appeal court of last resort.
Here I sat very much as a last resort, getting through the last required hurdle before I can appeal to some judges at Strasbourg with no part in the Scottish Establishment.
Five judges presided, headed by Lord Carloway, the bulldog-jowled Lord Justice General. To his left sat the tall figure of the kindly looking and bespectacled Lord Woolman, and further left Lord Matthews, who looked so strikingly like an old drinking friend of mine from Dundee, that I kept being disconcerted it wasn’t him. To Lord Carloway’s immediate right was Lady Paton, a bright-looking lady, who had an air of intense concentration and took copious notes. On the far right, the bench was completed by Lord Pentland, very engaged, constantly leaning forward, moustache bristling, as though itching to do all the talking himself. Which from time to time happened.
All wore Gilbert and Sullivan costumes and long wigs that looked frightfully uncomfortable. I felt for them.
Proceedings started one hour late. Lord Carloway opened by apologising to the court. The case had been delayed, Lord Carloway stated, because the bench had received unexpected intimation from the Scottish Government that a cabinet minister was coming to see them on an important matter. They had therefore had to delay and meet the minister before starting the hearing.
That is what Lord Carloway said. I faithfully report it. He did not say the cabinet minister’s visit had any connection to my case. He did not say it had no connection to my case. It might have been about judicial appointments, refurbishing courts or covid restrictions, for all I know. Urgent enough to cause an unscheduled cabinet minister to dash, and justify a delay to the hearing.
Roddy Dunlop QC, Dean of Faculty (which is a big deal among Scottish lawyers, head of the profession) then arose to present my case. Dunlop has a delivery of relentless logic, driven home by piercing blue eyes, but disconcertingly has a haircut which must entail going into the barber and saying “Cliff Richard circa 1963, please”. Dunlop’s horsehair wig has to perch behind the quiff.
Dunlop had been planning to speak for two hours, but interruptions from the bench were in the event so constant that he spoke for well over three. I published the written submission he had put in, and do urge you to read it – it is more entertaining than you might imagine. I shall not repeat here points he made from the written argument, except where necessary to explain a judicial intervention.
He opened by saying that this was a unique case. We knew of no precedent in Scotland for a journalist ever having been jailed for contempt of court. He then went on to say nice things about me, detailing my diplomatic career and positions I had held of great responsibility. He said that I had become a whistleblower, revealing terrible abuses of torture and extraordinary rendition, and in that respect had given evidence in person before committees of the Westminster Parliament, European Parliament and Council of Europe.
The bench looked to me particularly unimpressed by this; I am not sure they like whistleblowers.
Roddy Dunlop went on to say that I was a journalist, who had published articles in many mainstream media newspapers, but whose output was mostly published on my blog. That did not however make me any less of a journalist. I was fulfilling the role of a “public watchdog” on matters of public interest, as defined in judgments by the European Court of Human Rights.
I had a genuine belief, which I still held, that Alex Salmond had been the subject of a plot to prosecute him on false charges, and I had an article 10 right under the European Convention on Human Rights to publish that, as a matter of the highest public interest. That had to be the starting point for considering this case.
Both Lord Carloway and Lord Pentland queried whether I could be considered a journalist. Dunlop said that the ECHR case he quoted specifically included bloggers as enjoying the same protection as “public watchdog”.
Dunlop then argued that the test of strict liability in the Contempt of Court Act applies exclusively to publication of information which could interfere with a trial; it specifically does not apply to breaching an order on identification, where on the contrary there has to be an element of wilful disobedience of the court. He cited the Act itself and several cases.
Lord Carloway interjected that the act of publication was itself a deliberate act. That was the intent. Dunlop replied that there was no dispute that the articles were deliberately published; but that was not the same as that they contained intent to identify.
Lord Carloway queried whether this could be true even when the articles were obviously identifying.
Dunlop said yes, intent was crucial. Otherwise, if for example a protected complainer stated that they had been assaulted in a taxi on a certain date, and subsequently someone posted the taxi receipt online as routine public accounting for expenses, that person would be liable for jigsaw identification despite having no intent.
Lord Matthews asked how the court could know if the receipt had been posted maliciously.
Dunlop then moved on to the second ground of appeal, that the court should not have disbelieved the evidence given in my affidavit without cross-examining me and giving me a chance to answer questions on which they had any doubt. He described this as necessary to a fair hearing and natural justice.
Dunlop referred to Lady Dorrian’s judgment, which stated that evidence in my affidavit cast doubt on my claim to have no intent to reveal names. Dunlop stated that was far from a finding beyond reasonable doubt that I had intent to reveal names. The judgement had therefore not found intent to the criminal standard required in law.
Lord Carloway said the Court had no evidence before it that my affidavit had ever been accepted by the court as evidence at all. There was no joint minute to that effect, and there should have been. Dunlop said that indeed it would have been better if there were a joint minute, but that could hardly be held to be the petitioner’s fault. Lord Carloway asserted twice more that there was nothing before him to indicate my affidavits formed evidence in the case, and Dunlop repeatedly asserted that plainly they were evidence. Not to cross-examine was the Crown’s choice.
Dunlop said I had given this evidence by affidavit, as was frequently the case nowadays. My senior counsel had then informed the court that I had nothing to add but was available to answer any questions from Crown or Court. Lord Carloway said that offering to answer questions was not the same as submitting to cross-examination. Dunlop said it was the same. Lord Carloway said no it was not; I had not entered the witness box. Dunlop said that there had been no witness box: it was one of the early virtual hearings, I was not in a courtroom, and that may be some of the cause of procedural confusion.
There was then a slight break while I confirmed to Dunlop that counsel had said I was present (virtually) to be questioned by Crown or Court, and both Prentice and Dorrian had stated they did not wish to ask questions. Dunlop confirmed with Crown senior counsel Alex Prentice QC that this was indeed what had happened.
Carloway then said that witnesses were often not cross-examined in civil cases; it did not mean their evidence was accepted. He added that evidence “may be so manifestly untrue as not to require cross-examination”.
I recall Lord Pentland as saying this, but my notes say Lord Carloway. Either way, I had the distinct impression they intended this to convey their opinion of my own affidavit as “manifestly untrue”, and viewed it as closing the question.
Dunlop seemed somewhat thrown by the relentless negativity from the bench and the suggestion that my affidavit was so manifestly untrue as not to require cross-examination. He concluded that it remained his submission that, where the defendant faced imprisonment, they had a right to have doubts put to them, for them to give an answer that may change the view of the court.
Lord Carloway replied that the Crown’s scepticism of the defendant’s affidavit had been fairly put in the Crown’s written submissions.
Dunlop then moved on to the third ground of appeal, that the court had adopted too narrow a test in finding that identification had taken place to a section of the general public, such as work colleagues, whereas the correct test in the Act was to the general public, the public at large.
Lord Carloway said that it was obvious that the complainants were all close to the former First Minister; therefore very little extra information could identify them and great care should be taken. What if, for example, the parliamentary committee had been able to identify them? Would that in Dunlop’s opinion be a sufficient test?
Dunlop replied it would not. The parliamentary committee were not the general public, and had a great deal of other information available. Dunlop stated that my difficulty had lain in explaining what had actually happened in the Salmond trial, and what Salmond’s defence was, while still protecting the identities, as I had explained in my affidavits.
Carloway replied that the mainstream media appeared to have no difficulty in covering the trial without publishing identifying information. Dunlop said that he would question that. The mainstream media published similar information to the petitioner. Dani Garavelli in particular had published a great deal of identifying information. Yet none of these were prosecuted.
Dunlop had said the unsayable. The judges had all displayed simultaneous physical reactions to this, which in the nearly empty courtroom was particularly noticeable.
Lord Carloway said that Dunlop had said this case was unique. That was because the mainstream media knew how to avoid committing contempt. That is why there were no instances of the mainstream media being prosecuted for jigsaw identification. Lord Pentland reiterated that the reason no mainstream media were prosecuted was because they understood the law.
And at this point we broke for lunch.
After lunch, we reverted to the question of whether I ought to have been cross-examined before being disbelieved, on which Dunlop had found another precedent, which plainly said so, during the lunch break. Lord Pentland stated that it was common practice for a witness not to be cross-examined and then for their account to be dismissed as incredible. Lord Carloway said that it was frequently the case in criminal cases that complainers were not cross-examined by the defence on the grounds their evidence had no weight.
We then went back to the question of what was the proper test for identification. Lord Woolman observed it was “a tricky one”. He asked Dunlop what then the proper test should be? This struck me as the first open question asked of Dunlop, not phrased in terms of overt hostility.
Dunlop replied that the proper test should be whether, in combination with material that was already fully in the public domain, somebody had wilfully published the last piece of the jigsaw in order to enable identification.
Dunlop went on to give two examples. In the first, he stated that in their open and public opinion on whether my petition to the nobile officium was eligible, the court had stated that I published that a complainer had been nominated to a named parliamentary constituency. This was inaccurate. Had I published that, and had the complainer in fact been nominated, we accepted it would indeed have run a grave risk of identification to the general public. What I had in fact published was that she had been – unsuccessfully – seeking nomination. That fact was not available to the general public and only known to a small number of people within her own party.
I cannot explain the second example Roddy gave without repeating information Lady Dorrian found to be identifying. It was of a similar nature in relating to information only a very small number of people would know and which the public could not find. Lord Woolman asked how this was squared with google. Dunlop replied that information of the class he was describing was not available to a google search. Dorrian was therefore in error in finding it to be identifying.
Dunlop then moved on to his fourth ground, that of the article 10 right to freedom of speech. Dunlop said that this case represented the biggest single interference with freedom of speech in the modern history of Scotland. There was simply no precedent for jailing a journalist like this. Somebody with no criminal record and a history of public service, fulfilling a public watchdog role, had been jailed for eight months. Despite having a heart condition and a weeks old baby.
Lord Pentland intervened to say that this could be because there was no precedent for the committing of such a large contempt. It was also in the unique context of the Salmond case, in which there was unprecedented public interest and therefore unprecedented need to protect the complainers. That would explain the unique consequences.
Dunlop said that to jail a journalist must be necessary in law and consistent with democracy. The law must also be foreseeable. It was impossible for a journalist to know what pieces of the jigsaw might be known to a small group of people, and therefore to know if he was providing the last piece. Lord Pentland replied that was why extreme care must be taken. Dunlop said the care could become so extreme as to have a chilling effect which made any effective reporting of sexual assault cases impossible.
Dunlop then moved on to his fifth ground of appeal, that many of the identifications found by Lady Dorrian had never been alleged by the Crown or mentioned in proceedings; so the defence had no chance to rebut them. This was heard in comparative silence.
The Crown then opened, and Alex Prentice QC, a dry and inoffensive man, spoke very briefly. He said that the Crown had already set out its position in its written submissions (I am told I am not allowed to publish these). The Crown had alleged intent against me and the court had plainly found intent, so the question of strict liability did not in fact arise.
Lord Pentland came in to help Prentice by suggesting a precedent case to him, not in the bundle of authorities, which indiicated intent was not required. Pentland asked if that case might be useful to support his assertion that there was no need to prove intent. Prentice agreed, and said “we” had been discussing that very case over lunch. It was not plain to me who “we” were.
On the question of my not having been cross examined, Prentice stated that he had personally held a number of meetings with my then QC, John Scott, to discuss evidence. These meetings were covered by confidentiality, but the crown had “certain concerns” about my giving evidence. It had therefore been agreed between the counsel that my affidavits would be entered, and I would not be cross-examined: but this did not mean that my evidence was accepted.
I was much startled to hear that.
Prentice stated that on what was the correct test for identification, the Crown had alleged that I had embarked on a publication of a course of articles designed, when taken together, to reveal identities to the general public. This was accepted by the court and no question therefore arose. Furthermore the Crown had alleged that, taken together, all of the complainers were identified by all of the articles combined. It was therefore not necessary for the Crown to have cited each individual example of identification.
Lord Pentland said that contempt of court was a summary procedure anyway so there was no need to consider these questions.
Theoretically what happened next was that Dunlop had a chance to rebut. However he was so interrupted and overwhelmed by the bench, that my notes at this point seem to consist almost entirely of what the judges said.
Lord Pentland said that Dunlop had claimed it was unique for a journalist to be jailed, but the circumstances of the Salmond case are unique, and it was essential that the identities of complainers in sexual assault cases be protected, for fear of deterring other victims from coming forward.
Dunlop said we had always accepted that, and the Salmond case was also of unique public interest.
Lord Pentland said that we were looking at a course of conduct by a person who Dunlop had stated was a highly educated man who had held responsible positions. But these were aggravating factors not mitigating factors. He said that the need to protect identities had been stressed to the public and reiterated “Mr Murray’s previous positions of responsibility are an aggravating factor in his conduct”.
Dunlop cited an ECHR ruling which stated that journalists should not be imprisoned, except in extreme circumstances such as hate speech or incitement to violence. In this case, the appropriate punishment would have been a fine.
Lord Pentland said that this case was analogous to hate speech and incitement to violence; and my sustained campaign to reveal the identities of these women could indeed have incited violence or social media hate against them. Dunlop said no such thing had happened and there was certainly no such intent.
Lord Matthews said that the protection quoted in the ECHR case extended to investigative journalism and this was not investigative journalism. It said this applied to press offences, but was this a press offence? Was I a journalist?
Lord Woolman asked whether, if I could be called a journalist, did that mean just anybody could be a journalist who published on social media?
Dunlop replied, anybody who was fulfilling the role of a public watchdog, according to the European Court of Human Rights. Lord Pentland said that particular judgement appeared to refer to NGO’s rather than individuals. Dunlop said it specifically included bloggers. Pentland said he thought it mainly meant NGO’s but they would look at it.
Lord Carloway said that it was not plain this was a press offence. In mainstream media cases, the contempt was always acknowledged and an apology proffered. However in this case, a key factor in the sentence had been my “total and utter lack of remorse”, which continued.
Dunlop said it was my position that I had not intended to identify anybody. Lord Pentland said that it was common practice for sentences to be increased for lack of remorse from those who insisted on protesting their innocence after conviction.
Dunlop said my position was that I never intended to identify anybody; I had attempted to protect identities and I believed I had succeeded in that. Nobody had in fact been identified. But I would indeed be very remorseful if identification had occurred. Carloway asked, in a tone of incredulity, if we were saying that nobody had been identified as a result of my articles. Roddy Dunlop said that was indeed what we were saying. There had never been any credible evidence that identification had occurred. Carloway said he would find that most unlikely.
And that was it.
———————————————-
That is my best shot at a fair description of today in court, leaving out anything said that could identify a witness in the Salmond case. It is of course my perception, and a distillation of a full day, and in the circumstances I can hardly be unbiased. It is not my fault the court excluded the public from attending and so limited your access to other perceptions.
We will get a written judgement in probably around a couple of months. Of course judges can be testing an argument or playing Devil’s advocate. But my honest perception was of real hostility from the court. I think you will find the above is a fair guide to what the judgement will say. My perception is that judges’ hearts were worn on sleeves today.
The attempt to claim that my affidavits have never been accepted as evidence in the case is chilling.
My affidavits, of course, state the grounds of my belief that not only was there a plot against Alex Salmond, but that the politically corrupt Scottish prosecutorial system was a part of the plot. They list the documents I had seen, in the possession of the Crown and which the court refused to disclose, that led me to understand the plot. They name Salmond’s accusers and explain their roles (which part I have never published), and outline the roles of Peter Murrell and Sue Ruddick. The links to Nicola Sturgeon are outlined.
It is therefore unsurprising that the Crown had “serious concerns” about my evidence and did not want to cross-examine me in public and give me the chance to justify it.
It is more surprising that there is now an effort to claim my affidavits do not form part of the case at all. Carloway stoutly maintained they were not evidence. When we go to the European Court of Human Rights, those affidavits will be seen by judges who are not a part of the Scottish establishment. But if the affidavits were never evidence in the case, then they cannot be presented at Strasbourg.
How the judges can maintain my affidavits, given under oath, were not evidence I do not know, especially as they are repeatedly referred to in Lady Dorrian’s judgement. How could the court judge evidence which did not exist? I have never had any expectations from this court, but this is a key point I shall be looking for in this judgement.
I am afraid that I am going to have to renew my appeal for funds to help with the legal costs. Fighting these kinds of actions is simply crippling. Your dedication to freedom and support have so far saved me from personal bankruptcy, but we now need to raise a further £80,000 immediately – of which we readers have very kindly donated over half since I made the renewed appeal two days ago.
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Outrageous legal hubris.
You must win this. This bunch of mountebanks must be scrutinised by serious and honest jurists furth of Scotland.
Your account is shocking and chilling. Having read your submissions, I was planning to say that if you lost this case we could stop pretending that we live in a society governed by rule of law, but it seems our legal system is ahead of us on that one. It is truly worrying if they manage to prevent your affidavits from going to Strasbourg.
If one of the bebobinned jackanapes did indeed state that the mainstream media appeared to have no difficulty in covering the trial without publishing identifying information, then that at least may be a chink in the armour into which you can profitably wiggle your bodkin, since you would have absolutely no difficulty finding any number of people who can swear affidavits explaining exactly which alphabettis they know, and exactly which mainstream journalists revealed their identities.
And by the way how is your fundraising going? I might have to go and have another rake down the back of the couch…
“He said that the Crown had already set out its position in its written submissions (I am told I am not allowed to publish these).”
How can it be that these written submissions are not public documents?
If I’d believed we had Judicial independence I’d be v.optimistic.
Alas,..
“Lord Pentland said that we were looking at a course of conduct by a person who Dunlop had stated was a highly educated man who had held responsible positions. But these were aggravating factors not mitigating factors. He said that the need to protect identities had been stressed to the public and reiterated “Mr Murray’s previous positions of responsibility are an aggravating factor in his conduct”.”
The nub of the matter – an Establishment “good chap” should know what is expected of him – as all of England’s ‘Scottish’ colonial judges know – else they would not occupy their positions.
Lord Carloway said that ….. a key factor in the sentence had been “my total and utter lack of remorse”, which continued.
Truly Kafkaesque. Even if you are innocent – and dare to maintain your innocence in the face of grotesque omniscient judicial oppression you will be severely punished.
In a nutshell – that’s why we have and need juries – and that is why the Scottish Government, along with it’s un-separated judicial branch propose to abolish them.
Naked state power on display.
“Dunlop then moved on to his fourth ground, that of the article 10 right to freedom of speech. Dunlop said that this case represented the biggest single interference with freedom of speech in the modern history of Scotland. There was simply no precedent for jailing a journalist like this. Somebody with no criminal record and a history of public service, fulfilling a public watchdog role, had been jailed for eight months. Despite having a heart condition and a weeks old baby.
Lord Pentland intervened to say that this could be because there was no precedent for the committing of such a large contempt. It was also in the unique context of the Salmond case, in which there was unprecedented public interest and therefore unprecedented need to protect the complainers. That would explain the unique consequences.
Dunlop said that to jail a journalist must be necessary in law and consistent with democracy. The law must also be foreseeable. It was impossible for a journalist to know what pieces of the jigsaw might be known to a small group of people, and therefore to know if he was providing the last piece.”
Roddy Dunlop’s point relates back to both the “No punishment without law” precept enshrined in Article 7 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950) and the common law precept illegitmising retrospective/ex post facto “justice”.
The first (to my knowledge) Scottish legislation which broke the retrospective/ex post facto principle was Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, designed to plug the holes in Scottish breach of the peace common law resulting from the Smith v Donnelly (2001) case (https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5a8ff8d760d03e7f57ece4a6). This codified the “body swerve” around the principle (confirmed by the APPEALS AGAINST CONVICTION BY EWAN PATERSON AND OTHERS AGAINST PF AIRDRIE – https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=6da6a1a6-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7) in the following way:
One aspect of the damage done by Smith v Donnelly was that swearing was no longer a breach of the peace (it never was, but it had “become so” after some particularly corrupt cases, particularly in the 1950s) . A potential defence against Section 38 in the case of swearing at the police had been that such abuse would be “reasonably expected as part of their job”. A work-around was needed, and so the “abstracting from those actually subject to the abuse to the reasonable person” wheeze was introduced to ensure that all miscreants were rounded up. Hello retrospective/ex post facto “justice”.
Only the working class and their lawyers noticed this in the intervening years. CM’s case has now, in the context of retrospective “jig-saw” identification, shown the “middle class” exactly how the “justice system” works around little “local difficulties” to get its man.
On an unrelated topic, GO RUSSIA!
Glad you mentioned their urgent meeting beforehand with a government minister. Without that context their comments on your appeal would seem illogical and incomprehensible.
…and indeed the ‘conversation’ at lunch…
Aye my thoughts as well Brian. So strange that there was such a matter of urgency that a Scottish minister had to be dispatched just before the hearing began, eh? It’s then not surprising the behaviour of these so-called “learned judges”. They don’t intend for you to win this do they going by their remarks and behaviour; it seems to me that they had already prejudged this matter.
As Craig says, it could be on a matter entirely unconnected with the case.
Maybe he was sent up to invite them all up to Bute Hoose for High Tea with Nicola!
wow, crazy stuff at the courts, the abuse of process is awful. looks hostile, it must be so draining! thank you for taking the time to report.
the part I don’t understand is why sturgeon went after salmond so hard in the first place? I’ll have to reread the blogs.
With the polls at 58-42 Yes immediately after the Brexit vote, a vigorous campaign for independence led by Alex Salmond would have strolled it. That’s why he had to be stopped at all costs.
thanks. there will be a nice plum job outside of Scottish politics waiting for sturgeon in due course I guess.
I don’t think Sturgeon’s original motives matter very much now. Of course it was a very bad idea and rather disgusting, but that’s what you would expect.
As in the Watergate case and many others, it is the cover-up that does the real damage. They thought they had enough to frame Salmond, but the jury saw clean through it and acquitted him by a large margin.
But the damage could be limited by the usual technique of ordering the media to give an extremely partial and biased account of the trial, and then afterwards to run lots of stories suggesting the trial was a miscarriage of justice (as they did).
The only fly in the ointment was one honest, truthful and extremely dedicated voice constantly telling the whole truth without fear or favour.
So they decided to withdraw their favour and instil some real fear.
“Lord Pentland said that it was common practice for sentences to be increased for lack of remorse from those who insisted on protesting their innocence after conviction.”
I take this to mean that the outcome to your appeal here was already pre-ordained since it’s nothing to do with justice, it’s just something that’s done as a matter of course. It’s the default setting. I don’t think they can jail you again so I think they’re trying to suck you dry financially by tying you up in legal wranglings which is your increased punishment for having the audacity to appeal in the first place.
It’s just one big charade. There’s no justice involved in this whatsoever.
hear hear.
Indeed, the process IS the punishment. And if you don’t have funds, it can lead to bankruptcy, loss of home, family on the street. Such is “Justice” in Scotland under the NSNP
“…I think they’re trying to suck you dry financially by tying you up in legal wranglings…”
Ironically using our money to do so.
The establishment make laws to protect the establishment,you were part of the establishment once and should know that. (I’m sure you do). The establishment regard you as an upstart who needs put in his place: hence the reaction. They are trying to humiliate and bankrupt you, that’s what they do.
One does have to ask if judges so authoritarian in their attitudes should also face imprisonment when making incorrect judgements, incorrect sentencing etc etc?
Just imagine Mr Murray going to the ECHR and winning with a withering statement by the judges there concerning the conduct of the Scottish Judiciary.
Should all the participating judges each face 9 months in prison for their behaviour??
It is certainly a question worthy of discussion in front of aforesaid judges…..
> One does have to ask if judges so authoritarian in their attitudes should also face imprisonment when making incorrect judgements, incorrect sentencing etc etc?
Nope. Please let’s not start imprisoning judges because we don’t like their attitudes.
I don’t think it’s their attitudes that Rhys refers to. It’s their bland disregard of the law itself.
The principle he suggests is obviously a healthy one. King Alfred, a great stickler for justice, once went on progress around his kingdom hearing complaints about judges who had wrongly condemned men to death. When he found such a case proven, he had the judge hanged. Most salutory.
Of course the big problem is who is to stand in judgment over the judges. Although no doubt they themselves, if confronted with a glaring miscarriage of justice, would brush it off saying, “These things happen”. Maybe if they occasionally happened to a judge, it would help to concentrate minds and improve morality.
Yes they should – but they are not going to imprison themselves are they?
The arguments are so ridiculous, the abuse of process so great, the shamelessness so blatant because they stand to be so disgraced at the ECHR that they could not appear at a legal gathering, or justify having a position on a bench of any sort again. So they are desperately trying to avoid that at – literally – all costs.
Very reminiscent of show trials in Nazi Germany or the USSR.
Craig, I am simply staggered that this panel are prepared to trash the law in order to protect a politician. In order to uphold the conviction the law has to be mangled beyond repair. Thank you so much for your continued efforts to expose this corruption.
In ‘other’ circumstances, I have little doubt that the judges could make the complete opposite arguments if they wanted to!
Nauseating deification of MSM churnalists. They know the law !
I hope i understood this as you intended. It looks like a room without walls and they are determined to deny you the right to clear your name. If they get away with this completely this becomes something very bad to be rolled out to shut people up. Best wishes, you have endured very much pain and inconvenience.
First the affidavit isn’t evidence…
“Lord Carloway said the Court had no evidence before it that my affidavit had ever been accepted by the court as evidence at all”
then it is…
“Lord Carloway said that it was frequently the case in criminal cases that complainers were not cross-examined by the defence on the grounds their evidence had no weight.”
No wonder there’s no transcript available!
How on earth are these lords going to get around the fact that the ECHR explicitly includes bloggers in its definition of a “public watchdog” deserving protection? That “this was not investigative journalism”, possibly.
Quite: how can you determine that evidence “has no weight” without examining it? In order to examine it you have to have accepted it. In order to discuss it in your judgement (sections 75 – 80) you have to have both accepted and examined it.
Can it be that a lower court simply has to state that it “has not accepted evidence” in order for it not to be admissable at the ECHR? Then any nation or court which wished to avoid a negative judgement would simply need to state “we didn’t accept evidence X, Y, Z”
It sounds like this defense of “evidence not accepted” was planned when the discussion was had with Scott QC, arranging no oral submission, and when no formal minute was made of the submission of the affadavit.
“…how can you determine that evidence “has no weight” without examining it?”
Isn’t that the very definition of prejudice?
Alex prentice and all those so-called judges are the enemy of the people and need to face the consequences. All of them, without mercy. They are ruling our lives like an absolute monarch yet there is no method for the people to remove their malign influence. That’s not a democracy.
Very upsetting to read your account Craig. As you said, they wore their prejudice openly. Second donation on 28th.
Good God!
Truly jaw-dropping stuff.
Does anyone know whether or not Private Eye has covered Craig’s case?
@DanH No they’re too busy smearing Assange.
Hadn’t you heard? For quite a few years now, Private Eye has been an establishment rag quite as bad as the rest of them.
I think that even if you are successful on appeal this will not be a vindication of the Scots’ or indeed, the UK’s legal systems. And, whilst from my own trial experiences as a lawyer, there is some truth to the fact that appearing to be hostile to one side is a ruse to prevent the appearance of bias, I fear that in this case, the hostility towards you was genuine and won’t ultimately work in your favour.
The selection of the judges to hear appeals, in what is undoubtedly a political trial, is itself a political decision. As was the fact that, at first instance, it was before Lady Dorrian. By the appeal court deciding your affidavit evidence was not, in fact, evidence, is the judiciary’s way of ‘fixing your wagon’ at Strasbourg. I have in 30 years plus, witnessed the most amazing judicial dancing and twisting to get to the point that the judges decided, in advance, would be the outcome required by their political masters and chums in their select, private clubs after discussions fuelled by eighty year old port, fine malt whisky and the certainty that their discussions will never be revealed.
The worst example of judges “dancing and twisting to get to the point that the judges decided, in advance, would be the outcome required by their political masters” was the Lockerbie trial. The systematic bias to any spurious “evidence” that pointed only to al Megrahi and Malta rather than London and the Iranians was shameful to behold. That disgrace still hangs over Scottish “Justice”.
Thank you for the reminder.
Spot on. The late Paul Foot exposed the deeply corrupt nature of the Lockerbie bombing’trial’ in Private Eye. The whole case stank.
“…the certainty that their discussions will never be revealed”.
Hmmmm. It’s amazingly difficult nowadays to guarantee privacy if someone with a little technical nous wishes to overhear. Bugs can be minute and easily hidden.
Thank you for this update. The hearing sounds alarming, not only regarding their response to your affidavit, but, to add insult to injury, to require you to show contrition in spite of you having shown evidence that a conspiracy to construct a case against Mr Salmond was indeed believable. Here we have an example of corruption of the highest order, sprung from a desire to discredit the Scottish independence movement. What their judgement will be is a forgone conclusion.
Even at this late stage I still have no idea who the alphabetti women are.
I have some idea who some of these women are thanks to – Dani Garavelli!
Surely it cannot be proper legal procedure to reproach an appellant for lack of contrition when it is precisely the question of his guilt or innocence that is being appealed.
How can they ignore the Garavelli article and the Wark documentary? Both allowed identification of at least one of the complainants.
Your account of proceedings is chilling. The fact that the hearing was delayed for an hour so the judges could meet with an unamed SG minister is outrageous. What conclusion would a reasonable person come to if given that piece of information? The minister just dropped in for a chat? Justice seen to be done? What is seen to be done is so obviously not justice.
How can they ignore Lady Dorrian’s order in the Spectator case? Anyone who saw the original submission, the redacted one and Lady Dorrian’s order knows exactly who one of the accusers is.
@Skip_NC Shouldn’t that be “false accusers”.
> What conclusion would a reasonable person come to if given that piece of information?
Well I guess I’m not reasonable; but I’d suppose that the “independent” judges must have thought that the minister had an important message to deliver, that the judges needed to hear before the hearing began. In my unreasonable way, I conclude that the message was about the hearing.
It almost makes you think that it is personal with these judges. No transcript? Evidence is not evidence if it is considered to be incredible and not worthy of examination? But you only find out now. I wonder if there is a credibility issue with the Dorrian verdict and they are doing everything to support her. It just feels wrong.
It is literally straight out of Kafka, but with a Scottish rather than German flavour. Instead of the blatant, unmissable injustices portrayed by Kafka, judges simply “have a feeling” that a precedent isn’t applicable, or that evidence isn’t evidence.
No amount of law, constitutions, guidelines and procedures can ever make up for a basic lack of morality.
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness,
And is therefore good.
A foolish man tries to be good,
And is therefore not good.
— Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu – chapter 38 (translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)
A truly good man does nothing,
Yet nothing is left undone.
A foolish man is always doing,
Yet much remains to be done
When a truly kind man does something, he leaves nothing undone.
When a just man does something, he leaves a great deal to be done.
When a disciplinarian does something and no one responds,
He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to enforce order
Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
When kindness is lost, there is justice.
When justice is lost, there is ritual.
Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion.
Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping of the Tao.
It is the beginning of folly.
Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real
and not what is on the surface,
On the fruit and not the flower,
Therefore accept the one and reject the other.
I think we have reached the stage of “ritual”.
When these senior judges said that people who have occupied high positions in government should be aware of the need for extra discretion, can we have a copy of that opinion to use in consideration of BoJo’s booze parties during lockdown in/outside No 10 Downing St please?
The most senior government official that I know personally certainly has an extremely powerful resistance to mentioning anything of any sensitivity which feels to me personally as though he is permanently lying. Which makes me feel very uncomfortable in his presence and I am no longer friends with him.
I can’t stand non-communicators, and what strikes me about these senior appointees adjudicating Craig’s unfortunate case, they absolutely can’t stand seekers or speakers of truth like Alex Salmond or Craig Murray. For them, seekers of truth are branded across their foreheads: ” Jail me ” in satanic runes.
Hence it becomes their high and official duty to burn such witches as intentional exposers of life’s unmentionable realities. Hence the need for juries who see normal reality. The governing class is completely unfit to adjudicate over the simple lives of you and me.
Had Craig Murray been an important person with the correct government opinions, then he would have been charged a Fixed Penalty charge of £ 100 as BooHoo will for breaking his own lockdown Law.
This hearing illustrates the true meaning of British Justice. If you don’t have the right opinions you are guilty.
For what it’s worth as a comparison, I’ve always felt that whatever I do as a Muslim will always be considered wrong in the ideas of the South Asian Muslim . The imam constantly refers to the highest legal authority, the word of God, taking verses out of context to prove his disgust at me. Conversely whatever they do is fully squeaky perfect.
Can they sense my French blood and that I’m not susceptible to their normal Englishman baiting technique? Certainly the Scottish judiciary are monumentally posed off with Craig. By nor
uwontbe grinningsoon
Projection of the things we don’t like about ourselves onto others is regarded in the chattering classes as intelligence. One person’s idea of intelligence is another person’s idea of Deep Self-Delusion. Most MSM is DSD.
That is the legal distinction between Mainstream media and new media. If it ain’t got DSD, it ain’t proper news. Proper news must contain prejudice, partiality, deception, disinformation and fantasy.
And there it is in black and white:
“But if the affidavits were never evidence in the case, then they cannot be presented at Strasbourg.”
Even more redacty than John Swinney’s black-markered-up documents at the Fabiani Farce!
Schrödinger’s Affidavit!!
One minute it isn’t evidence and the next it is!
NS can’t allow the evidence of fabrication, perjury and collusion to wrongfully convict AS getting out of Scotland and her control.
I honestly don’t think it was your articles that triggered your malicious prosecution so much as your examination of potential to remove the alphabettes’ cloak of anonymity via the courts in the public interest.
“Schrödinger’s Affidavit!!
One minute it isn’t evidence and the next it is!”
Maybe it’s “meta-evidence”; evidence that it isn’t evidence. A sort of legal Moebius strip.
This reminds me of the trials Craig attended in Samarkand!
Shocking.
Ah, so on the question of whether Craig’s affidavit is evidence or not – could Strasbourg take an official view on that question themselves? I mean, if the Strasbourg court’s hands are tied, then – in theory – a corrupt or self-serving court at a national level could merely slap the “not evidence” label on anything they like, and it would have to be excluded from the appeal. That would be untenable, right?
Indeed, Jon. The Crown would try to have it excluded at Strasbourg on grounds it was not part of the case, We would fight that. Lots of precedents e.g. on Spanish courts’ treatment of Basque separatists.
“Dunlop said that this case represented the biggest single interference with freedom of speech in the modern history of Scotland.”
I wonder how far back in history you would need to go to find a greater one. Mediaeval times?
Not likely. The 1790s for example, at the time of the Jacobin scares….
Quite: how can you determine that evidence “has no weight” without examining it? In order to examine it you have to have accepted it. In order to discuss it in your judgement (sections 75 – 80) you have to have accepted, examined and considered it in detail. In these circumstances to say you never even accepted it and so it is irrelevant is Kafkaesque.
It sounds like this defense of “evidence not accepted” was planned when the discussion was had with Scott QC, arranging no oral submission, and when no formal minute was made of the submission of the affadavit. Can’t you ask Scott QC for your money back? He clearly severely compromised your legal position by not clarifying that the evidence had been accepted by the court either with an oral submission or formal minute. That is exactly the reason that you paid enormous amounts to a QC for: to not drop the ball in such a fashion. That he apparently did this without your knowledge – to phrase it mildly – is surely ground for complaint to the Faculty of Advocates?
Just a quick thought on who the Cabinet Minister might be:
“The Lord Advocate is the senior of the two Scottish Law Officers. She is a Minister in the Scottish Government”
Or is that too tin-foil hat?
I think they would have said if it were the Lord Advocate.
Fair enough Craig, I am not experienced enough to know if they would or not.
My opinion is they wouldn’t and would obfuscate as they know that you would report this fact verbatim as a citizen journalist, and in doing so help with the understanding that this appeal is just another kangaroo court.
What I do know is that the Scottish Judiciary appears to be so far through the looking glass now if they are prepared to contort the truth that your affidavits, which were considered in Lady Doriens summing up are now claimed not to have been considered as evidence at all.
As a result nothing would surprise me any more.
Thanks for the reply and stay strong and don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Is it possible to put in a Freedom of Information request?
“Lord Carloway said that it was frequently the case in criminal cases that complainers were not cross-examined by the defence on the grounds their evidence had no weight”
That would surely only apply if there was weighty evidence already tabled which would make it reasonable for the defence not to expect cross-examination.
I hope that your QC Scott confirmed that he never agreed to no cross-examination of you or your affidavits. That seems to me a tidy way of avoiding giving you a fair trial.