Nicola Sturgeon was involved in 'political conspiracy' against Alex Salmond, claims ex-SNP minister
Kenny MacAskill renewed his calls for a public inquiry into the events surrounding an investigation into the late Alex Salmond.
Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon after the SNP election win in 2011
Nicola Sturgeon was involved in a "political conspiracy" against Alex Salmond, a former SNP justice secretary has claimed.
Kenny MacAskill warned today there must be "no cover up in Holyrood or in St Andrew's House" as he renewed his calls for a public inquiry to examine the circumstances of an investigation into the former first minister, who died in October last year aged 69.
The Alba leader, who quit the SNP in 2021 to join Salmond's fledgling party, has regularly demanded answers over a botched Scottish Government probe into claims of harassment made against Salmond in 2018.
Complaints were made by two female civil servants but an internal Government investigation was later ruled to be unlawful. Salmond was awarded over half a million pounds in costs after a judge ruled in 2019 the investigation had been "tainted with apparent bias".
The former SNP leader was separately charged that same year with sexual assault against nine women. He was cleared of all charges in court in 2020.
"I think there has to be an inquiry because what happened to Alex Salmond was fundamentally wrong," MacAskill said in an interview with Go Radio.
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"I think what we are seeing is obfuscation, to put it mildly, by the Scottish Government. There can be no cover up in Holyrood or in St Andrew's House. We require to know who did what, what was done, if that impacts upon Alex so be it, but I don't believe it does. I believe it will vindicate him because a manifest injustice was done towards him."
Pressed on on whether Sturgeon was at the heart of a "political conspiracy" MacAskill continued: "I believe so. There was a political conspiracy to do down Alex Salmond.
"I have no doubt that was a factor in his early death. He wasn't even 70 but what he had to endure. But he was vindicated in the civil courts with the Scottish Government chastised in the highest court in our land and in the criminal court a jury of his peers exculpated him."
Sturgeon, who was first minister at the time of the investigation, has previously denied any suggestion of a conspiracy. Salmond himself alleged that some people had wanted to "remove me as a political threat".
She told MSPs in 2019: "It seems to me that I am being simultaneously accused of being involved in a conspiracy against Alex Salmond, and also of colluding with Alex Salmond.
"Nothing could be further from the truth in both of those - neither of those things are true. Since I found out about the investigation I have tried to do the right thing in a situation which, no matter what happened, was never going to be easy for me."
Alex Salmond leaves the High Court in 2019
(Image: Getty Images )
In a 2021 interview with STV, Sturgeon was again asked about a conspiracy against Salmond. She said: "He has made claims, or he appears to be making claims or suggestions there was some kind of conspiracy against him or concerted campaign against him, there is not a shred of evidence about that, so this is the opportunity for him to replace insinuation and assertion with evidence.
"I don't believe he can because I know what he is saying is not true but the burden of proof is on him. If he can't provide that evidence he should stop making these claims about people because they're not fair and deeply distressing."
The former first minister was later cleared of breaching the ministerial code over her involvement in the Salmond saga.
An independent inquiry in 2021 by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton examined whether the first minister misled the Scottish Parliament over what she knew and when.
A separate inquiry by MSPs into the Scottish Government's handling of harassment complaints against Salmond found there were 'fundamental errors' in its harassment procedure.
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The Record asked the SNP for comment.
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