Just about ready for my trial for contempt of court tomorrow; signing off a final affidavit in a minute. It is really difficult to get my head round the fact that I could very soon be jailed for up to two years for writing about the conspiracy to fit up Alex Salmond and reporting honestly and carefully on his trial, and face an “unlimited” fine.
One feature of the pre-trial hearings and rulings has been the Crown refusing to disclose documentary evidence, and refusing to allow my witnesses. It seems they are trying to get me convicted with no courtroom drama and as little said as possible. I have at this moment very little idea even of what evidence I shall be permitted to give myself from the (virtual) dock. I have, however, sworn on oath two affidavits, and the text of these will be published tomorrow on this blog, (redacted for jigsaw identification) once I adopt my evidence in court.
You can listen live to the court case from 10.30am tomorrow. Access details are here. I shall be very grateful indeed for everyone who does listen in. I am afraid it is a telephone link not an internet link; it is charged as a normal call to London (not a premium number), which may be free depending on your own phone contract. I cannot understand at all why the court uses this phone technology rather than the web, particularly as there is live video feed available to journalists.
Finally, I am afraid I again need money for my defence fund. I want to make very plain that I do not want anybody to give money who cannot afford it. I also do not want anybody to divert money to me that they would have donated to Julian Assange’s defence fund. Julian is facing far longer imprisonment than me, and frankly is a much more important figure with a great deal more to contribute on the major issues facing society. With those caveats, if anybody can donate to help me I will be very grateful.
The Defence Fund has to date raised £112,000. We have paid the legal team £61,500 to date and have a new fee note detailing over £75,000 (feenote). I have to calculate the exact sum but I believe about £25,000 of this is already paid. In addition, we have paid out £5,000 for a separate counsel’s opinion on the public interest in the anonymity of certain of the discredited accusers of Salmond set against the public interest in their pivotal positions in public life, we have paid £3,500 for the opinion poll evidence and we are paying £6,500 for specialist counsel to advice on social media law. Plus we will have the fees for the trial itself.
So I expect final costs will total over £160,000 and possibly substantially so. This is a huge amount to try to raise from my readers. It is a major indictment of our legal system that it is so ruinously expensive – Alex Salmond is an innocent man left with costs of many hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Crown has dragged out the case over a series of preliminary hearings – classic state lawfare tactics. And my lawyers have kindly capped or reduced their fees. If I did not genuinely believe that important issues of freedom of speech are at stake, I would not ask you to contribute. I would also point out that in these circumstances everything helps – the large bulk of the fund has been raised from many thousands of small contributions.
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Wishing you all the very best. Lady Dorian is a respected and impartial judge, Mr Murray. We must hope that you will come through this and come home to your family with no jail time and no fine. Bonne Chance, mon brave!
You can’t be taken into custody from a virtual dock. There would have to be a sentencing ‘diet’ at which you would be required to appear in person.
Good luck. It sounds like a witch hunt but I hope you are exhonorated as it should not be illegal to tell the truth
You are a true champion of truth, democracy, humanity, human rights and the restoration of the sovereignty of Scotland.
Craig, I hope you are acquitted of all charges.
If you are convicted, my faith in the Scottish legal system will take a credibility hit as damaging as the vindictive shambles you laid bare over J Assange’s continuing battle against extradition. The perfidious nature of how judges and the state cooperate to conceal and protect those highly placed members of our ruling elite from the dishonest consequences of their actions, that’s what’s on trial here, unfortunately, scapegoats need to be found and sacrificed as a deterrent, I sincerely hope you’re not one of them. Good luck
Good luck tomorrow Craig, it’s payday on Friday so I’ll be able to chip in.
Speaking truth to power serves us all (with the exception of bad Actors).
Humanity is with Mr Murray, et al.
Craig,
I’ll wire a contribution and be listening in tomorrow. Not my area of law but I’ll do my best. I could weep at the state of my profession and the wider political landscape.
The details for tomorrow are:
Supreme Courts Hearing Access
High Court of Justiciary
Case: Petition and Complaint – the Lord Advocate v Craig Murray
Date: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Time: 10.30am
Dial (United Kingdom toll): +44-20-7660-8149
Access code: 174 658 1827
High Court of Justiciary
Case: Petition and Complaint – the Lord Advocate v Craig Murray
Date: Wednesday, 27 January 2021
Time: 10.30am
Dial (United Kingdom toll): +44-20-7660-8149
Access code: 174 658 1827
https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/coming-to-court/access-to-virtual-hearings
Good luck, Craig.
Have donated again and will do so again if needed. Your services, your fight for freedom of speech, your fight for justice – you are the type of person that keeps countries ‘clean’. We need more folks like you! I like what I hear of Lady Dorian & so I believe you’ll get a fair hearing. Wishing you all the best for tomorrow & best wishes to your family. We’re all right behind you!
A 50 on it`s way to you today from South West France. Give the bastards hell tomorrow
Good luck!
Sending good vibes for the next two days and backing it up with a small contribution in this trial between humanity and perversity that involves us all.
Lang may yer lum reek!
Lady Sturgeon, Lord Yousaf and Lady Brindley doesn’t bode well. But good luck!!!
Small donation made. Long may you continue to be a gadfly and escape the hemlock.
Donation made Craig, more available when needed. We know you will always speak truth to power and you should be acquitted.
Wishing you all the best for tomorrow.
Best wishes to your family as well.
A true friend to Ghana and a firm support for those who need a voice.
Small donation to Julian’s fund made. Will be listening tomorrow along with many others. Thank you for all your great writing.
Another political trial in Scotland’s oppressive colonial justice system. If ever there was a reason for independence. Colonial oppression all around. There’s definitely a consistent ‘pattern of behaviour’ here and we all know who the real villains are.
Scotlan’s mankit unionist slump needs a guid dicht oot. That will require independence and a strong hand.
A wee contribution made, Craig.
However, given my experience of lawyers, and your eloquence, I believe you would probably be as well defending yourself. Its all tedious and costly theatre badly in need of updating. All the best.
whether the meeting was by accident
-unlikely as as it was pre-arranged,
that she did not know the subject matter
-but her inner circle/palace guard/pirate crew all did, the persons who arranged the meeting did
– the meeting did take place
with Sturgeon, Mr GA and themselves, Sturgeon’s auxiliary brain present.
However it took place, that cannot surely in any way affect Sturgeon’s ability to remember the meeting, if she knew nothing (probability near zero) then given the subject, it would have been singularly outstandingly memorable, not easily ever forgotten.
Given the ongoing ban on humour, (not that being attempted by the courts, but Craig’s own such ban, and that of the mods here), since Craig’s humour-ectomy of the already shrivelled organ, I cannot think he can use the defence of fair comment, satire, as humour has no affect on him, it’s water off a duck’s back or goes right over his head, he’s as mirthful as a dead sheep, humour then is completely out of character for him. For many.
Good luck though. Scotland is lost, finished, unfortunately for those of us stuck here, watching darkness engulf their vision for our people and our country, its extinguishment. A last hurrah from the injustice system, would make no difference. We’ve gone backwards.
Humour is in the eye of the beholder. And since this is Mr Murray’s blog…
O Scotland is
THE barren fig.
Up, carles, up
And roond it jig.
Auld Moses took
A dry stick and
Instantly it
Floo’ered in his hand.
Pu’ Scotland up,
And wha can say
It winna bud
And blossom tae.
A miracle’s
Oor only chance.
Up, carles, up
And let us dance!
(From ‘A Drunk Man Looks at a Thistle’ by Hugh MacDiarmid)
Good luck Craig; I can’t thank you enough for all you’re doing. I’ve donated on top of my regular contribution.
Wishing you the best of luck for this case. Your reporting has shone a bright light in some very dark places, for which we are very grateful. (But of course the rats and cockroaches are not). Know that people are watching this from all around the world – with hope in our hearts for justice and fire in our blood against injustice. You and your family are in our prayers.
More power to your elbow, Craig.
All the best.
I just put in £100 for your defence. I am shocked at the scale of your legal fees. But above all that this trial is even going ahead. Especially given the evident corruption of a political appointee deciding on prosecution of legal cases in which the First Minister and her cronies are implicated and whose publicly admitted misjudgements have already led to other innocents eventually being exonerated while costing UK or Scots tax payers millions of pounds. No doubt the SNP will try to argue that such comments about government appointees in future are a hate crime. Honestly I don’t think Scotland is any longer a safe place for speaking the truth in public and currently I am not there. Bon courage indeed.
It’s not just you in the dock tomorrow Craig, it’s the whole Scottish Legal system. If they convict you it will be them who’ve brought the Court into disrepute and invited contempt. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Our thoughts will be with you.
Justice is for those that can afford it eh?
tell me about it
over the years I’ve been robbed of 100’s of thousands for the want of legal fees
I hope your case gets flung out with some stern words from the judge to the prosecution. These malicious prosecutions need to stop. I hope your judge gives a warning shot to COPFS that they are bringing our Scottish institutions into disrepute. Sending you good vibes.
Roast them with logic and facts. Good luck.
Good luck today Craig. I can let you know our mutual friend in Madrid is going to contribute 30 euros a month to the cause, which I alas am not in a position to do. Once again all the very best to you and your family in these terrible times.
Donation to your cause made last night, Mr Murray. It would be great to read later on today that your case is dealt with as expeditiously as Mark Hirst’s!
I see Craig’s Wikipedia page is still being edited by an anonymous source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:History/Craig_Murray
thanks for this revellation, Mary, one would have thought that in todays drang to privacy, one would have the powers to be deleted from this Phillip Cross playground.
If you are not in charge of putting on your facts and figures as you think its true, why should editing be allowed.
Any Tom Dick or hairy Mc Larry at the MIs can do what they like whilst chewing their sandwich, that cant be the original idea of Wikipedia.
Good luck Craig. Will try and dial in this morning, if possible. Im in hospital with suspected DVT and it might not be allowed.
“, that cant be the original idea of Wikipedia.”
Or can it?
Wikipedia was, I believe, started with idealistic motives. (Although it may have made a bob or two for some people, despite the pathetic cries for help one sees from time to time).
However, any human endeavour is liable – likely, even, if it is big or important enough – to be subverted to the ends of those who crave power and money.
In a way, Wikipedia serves as a warning to those of an idealistic bent. What has happened to it is more or less exactly what has happened to government, the media, the justice system, the armed forces…
The internet itself seems to be quickly lurching towards this category; we’ve never had such an incredible opportunity to talk to people we’ve never met in a (relatively) safe environment for total honesty and openness, and the more people seem to join, the more cheering there seems to be for the dismantling of that to make it subject to the same social trappings of ‘real life’.
We’ve only really had it for twenty-five years and it already seems like the original spirit is all but gone. The anxiety of some nuclear response to what I thought was an innocuous comment ruining my life isn’t worth trying to talk to people any more.
Just looked at some of the deletions – comments deleted even where the comments are already presented as a criticism of what is referred to as Craigs ‘Conspiracy Theories’, eg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1003084004
Can anybody comment as to whether there is anything to prevent anybody editing to reinsert deleted comments?
That’s not an invoice, that’s a tribute.
Whatever has been discounted, there should always be a breakdown.
Chucked some money in the pot, Craig – you have my love and solidarity, Truth-Teller xo Billy