Now hand over ALL Salmond case files, inquiry tells Crown

PROSECUTORS have been ordered to release evidence Alex Salmond believes will prove senior SNP and Government officials plotted to ruin his reputation and have him jailed.

The Holyrood inquiry will use the parliament’s powers to compel the Crown Office to hand over evidence which was obtained ahead of Mr Salmond’s criminal trial.

MSPs are set to force prosecutors to release all correspondence between senior SNP officials – including Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd.

The committee decided to push ahead with the demand at a meeting yesterday, and also invited Mr Salmond to appear before it tomorrow.

It is understood the ex-First Minister will accept the offer after dramatically pulling out of his appearance on Wednesday hours before he was due to travel to Edinburgh.

The inquiry will issue a Section 24 order under Section 23 of the Scotland Act, to compel the Crown Office to hand over the evidence it seeks. This was previously used to obtain text and WhatsApp messages gathered by Mr Salmond’s defence team, but MSPs decided not to publish them.

However, the former SNP leader has claimed the Crown Office failed to produce all the materials supporting his claims of a plot by senior Nationalist figures to ensure he could not return to public life.

In a submission to the inquiry, Mr Salmond claims the move by prosecutors was to shield ‘some of the most powerful people in the country’.

And yesterday, officials confirmed the committee will now issue another order in a bid to get hold of all the information.

In his written evidence, Mr Salmond made accusations against Mr Murrell, Miss Lloyd, the SNP’s chief operating officer Susan Ruddick and compliance officer Ian McCann.

Mr Salmond said they had been part of a ‘deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals within the Scottish Government and the

SNP to damage my reputation, even to the extent of having me imprisoned’.

Despite obtaining the materials before his criminal trial next year, he was prevented from putting them before the jury for legal reasons.

Following his acquittal, Mr Salmond said this evidence would ‘see the light of day’.

He has also been threatened with prosecution by the Crown Office if he shared the evidence with the inquiry.

The committee has also backed a move to have the Lord Advocate James Wolffe appear on Monday, ahead of Miss Sturgeon’s appearance on Wednesday.

In addition, MSPs have voted to ask the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body to approach the High Court for a definitive ruling on whether some of Mr Salmond’s evidence would breach a court order over fears it could identify complainers.

The committee has now written to Mr Salmond asking him to appear tomorrow.

Following the redaction of large parts of his evidence, Mr Salmond’s legal team argued they needed time to discuss what he could now say in parliament.

Speaking ahead of the inquiry decision, a spokesman for Mr Salmond said: ‘Mr Salmond has never refused to give evidence.’

A Scottish parliament spokesman said: ‘There was unanimous agreement in the committee that it wants to hear from Alex Salmond.’

‘Never refused to give evidence’