Now that precisely the same individuals who organised the conspiracy to frame Alex Salmond are under heavy police investigation for financial fraud, many people are now prepared to listen who refused to do so before.
I am going forward with a case to the UN Human Rights Committee over my substantial imprisonment for journalism. This will set out what really happened in Scotland – to Alex Salmond, to me, to Clive Thomson, to Mark Hirst and others – on the international stage.
It will highlight that it remains illegal to publish almost any of the truth about the conspiracy led by Sturgeon, Murrell, Lloyd and Ruddick.
Going to the UN has several advantages.
I am no longer constrained as I was in appeals, to stick to matters presented at the original hearing, which you might recall was over in half an hour and at which my lawyers appeared to believe the case would be simply dismissed if not much fuss was made.
I am also no longer constrained to use Scottish lawyers. The extraordinary deference in the Scottish legal system, and the refusal of a series of Scots lawyers to say anything remotely critical of Lady Dorrian, or anything that might challenge the extreme restrictions on evidence she had placed in both my trial and the Salmond trial, has been crippling.
I am going to the United Nations with non-Scots international lawyers. You can judge the difference in their approach from the fact-finding report below.
Among the evidence barred by Lady Dorrian from the Salmond trial, and on which she refused a formal application for disclosure in my own hearing, were the WhatsApp messages between Murrell, Ruddick and others in which they were plainly trying to generate and influence complaints against Salmond.
I cannot put this better than David Davis did in the House of Commons using parliamentary privilege.
For example, these texts show that there is a concerted effort by senior members of the SNP to encourage complaints. The messages suggest that SNP chief executive Peter Murrell co-ordinated Ruddick and Ian McCann, the SNP’s compliance officer, in the handling of specific complainants. On 28 September, a month after the police had started their investigation of the criminal case, McCann expressed great disappointment to Ruddick that someone who had promised to deliver five complainants to him by the end of that week had come up empty, or “overreached”, as he put it. One of the complainants said to Ruddick that she was
“feeling pressurised by the whole thing rather than supported”.
The day following the Scottish Government’s collapse in a judicial review in January 2019, Ruddick expressed to McCann the hope that one of the complainants would be
“sickened enough to get back in the game.”
Later that month, she confirmed to Murrell that the complainant was now “up for the fight” and
“keen to see him go to jail”.
Ruddick herself, in one of her texts, expressed nervousness about
“what happens when my name comes out as [redacted] fishing for others to come forward”.
Note, again, that this was after the criminal investigation into Salmond had commenced. This is improper, to say the least. Contact with, and influence of, potential witnesses is totally inappropriate once a criminal investigation is under way. That was known inside the SNP itself.
Text messages reveal that at an SNP national executive committee meeting early in January 2019, the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry) raised concerns among staff at Westminster that SNP headquarters were engaged in “suborning” of witnesses, while on 28 August 2018, a senior member of SNP staff in this building described in an email the SNP headquarters move against Salmond as a “witch-hunt”.
Shortly after charges were brought against Salmond, Peter Murrell sent messages saying that it was a
“good time to be pressurising”
detectives working on the case, and that the more fronts Salmond was having to “firefight” on,
“the better for all complainers.”
When the inquiry put those messages to Mr Murrell, he said that they were “quite out of character”. That is no defence even were it true, but, having seen the evidence of other messages, it seems to me that they were all too much in character for Mr Murrell. In a Committee evidence session on 8 December last year, Mr Murrell replied under questioning that there were no more messages of the type already in the public domain from January 2019.
That statement, delivered under oath, is hard to reconcile with the dozens of messages stretching over a period of months from September 2018 that I have now seen. There is more, but it would take the whole debate to read them out.
You will recall that, after release from prison, I was interviewed by police at my home about who was responsible for leaks to MPs of Murrell’s and Ruddick’s self-incriminating messages.
It does seem that the lesson of these revealing messages was learnt by the Sturgeon clique:
In a properly run country, Sue Ruddick would have been correct to worry what would happen if it came out that she was “fishing for complainers to come forward”. It has always been my contention, and it remains so, that in the attempted fit-up of Alex Salmond the Crown Office were in cahoots.
Sue Ruddick has been promoted now to Chief Executive Officer of the SNP.
I am afraid it will take funds to get my case before the UN. £30,000 will get us over the line, and more than that will enable us to do a more thorough job (there are over 1,000 pages of supporting documentation) and to pay the costs for further organisations and experts to become involved.
I will remind you that among the urgent issues on which we seek comment from the UN, is the ruling that bloggers and citizen journalists do not benefit from the protections for free speech enjoyed by mainstream media.
This is the initial draft report (small redactions purely for publication on this blog) prepared by the team that will be taking the case forward:
Depending on your device, this might be easier to read in the original pdf here:
KORFF-AZIZOV – Factfinding report on Craig Murray – EDITED 230423finalfinal2
I keep going with this because it is important to lift this cloud that looms over Scotland’s political life, that leaves journalists in fear of persecution, that threatens bloggers, unfairly stigmatises me, and is frankly a disgrace.
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As ever I am impressed with your tirelessness, Craig. But I do have a few ponderences…
I don’t disagree with taking this to the UNHRC, but can you expand a bit on what they can do? If your aim is successful, I assume the best they could do is to produce an advisory ruling that would be ignored in Scotland, and the largely compliant UK media would give scant attention to?
On something of slight tangent, I wonder where donations come in, it would be good to contribute to your last defence fund too…
Jon,
The UK is of course a party to the protocol that establishes the human rights committee, but you are right that there is no enforcement mechanism. Increasingly though UN judgments are quoted in domestic cases.
More to the point, it can provide powerful moral vindication and may well have a real effect in the UK, as the media which overlooked and covered up the glaring facts is now less inclined to protect Sturgeon.
Perhaps, but the UK is a country where “we need fewer human rights” is actually a key plank in the governing party’s manifesto (fully abetted by the press), and the government openly talks about lawlessly flouting treaties as if a trifling matter of no consequence. You can’t shame the shameless.
” You can’t shame the shameless.”
But you can make more people aware of their shamelessnes.
Mr Majid, if failing to “…shame the shameless…” is the minimum that comes out of all of this, surely this is better than where we stand now in our helterskelter descent into totalitarianism?
Even the act of failure is resistance to oppression – as long as it is a conscious willed act and especially if it is done whilst fully recognising the nature of one’s oppressor. Make no mistake about what the above article is saying; only the oligarchs and their propaganda rags are allowed to observe and report the “doing of justice” – this state of affairs must be challenged.
Mahatama Ghandi’s Salt March cost a great deal in physical resources, yet its symbolism allowed for an inversion and transformation of the notion of Imperial power – what was thought mighty and unchallengeable was revealed to be what it was – a naked emperor surrounded by fawning sycophants whose time had finally come. The eternal realm of symbolic transformation triumphed over the mightiest Empire the world had ever seen.
” My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
As Mr Conspiranoid points out, this stuff is only talking place because it is happening in the shadows and once dragged out in the full light of day, allows any who might care, to form a judgement and therefore act.
It is Mr Murray’s unique position (though it must one of great difficulty) to be able to take up this challenge, which I am sure you will agree is both necessary and laudable?
What happens if you find that Sturgeon and her cabal are not the leading players but in fact it goes all the way up to the ministerial level in London?
It would not be anything of a surprise and would rather helpfully start to explain that the SNP did not just randomly corrupt itself but rather was very deliberately led astray from inside and out.
Craig, I hope you win your case at the UN not only because of what you have suffered but for wider political / journalistic freedoms.
Just wondered: have you ever had any remorse or regrets about continuing to encourage people to vote for Sturgeon’s SNP in the December 2019 general election, when, by that time, you already knew so many bad things about them?
To be fair, what other option was there? Democracy eh.
What democracy? FPTP isn’t and neither is d’Hondt.
True democracy is letting the people have a say in running the country, not just letting them choose the people who choose the people who have a say in running the country.
I do hope you are right, Craig. £30k for “some” chance of success may be gambling odds, but since the corporate press have long been a shambles, and there are few people now willing to defend democratic principles, perhaps it is worth a punt. I have sent an additional donation, and hope the totals have gone through £10k now. Please keep tweeting fund progress!
Sorry to say this, but “moral… UK” is not a reassuring pair of concepts. If they can ignore any finding without actual physical harm coming to them, they will.
“many people are now prepared to listen who refused to do so before”
Indeed, Nicla Ultras branded you unhinged for highlighting the Salmond conspiracy and exulted in your incarceration. Now their queen is without power and disgraced beyond redemption they have abandoned her, shedding their old skins in a heartbeat. They may listen to you now but do not mistake them for reliable allies.
To paraphrase Chomsky, you don’t speak truth to power because power already knows the truth, what they care about is that it not be spread, hence the importance of controlling the media, ensuring Craig’s NUJ membership not be renewed, etc. Sturgeon’s minions are unlikely to embrace Craig, their rejection of him was not because they deemed him a liar, but the opposite, he was telling inconvenient truths that embarrass the powers that be, the one truly unforgivable sin in politics.
Iain,What has Nicola done to disgrace her beyond redemption?
Not much .. Just plotting to have her predecessor jailed on bogus sex charges .. embezzling the cash of folk who believed she was all about independence. Maybe disgrace is too strong a word. Sorry if it upset you.
Not upset. Just puzzled. As far as I know Nicola has never even been charged with anything, but then I don’t often read the Express, or its Craig’s World online supplement. 🙂
It will be kinda ironic if Murrell and Beattie are lined up with Craig on wrongful arrest appeals. Good luck to all of them.
It’s rather sweet that some people still manage to think that Tricky Nicky is still all to the good and squeaky clean. If you were little red riding hood you would have been wolf fodder for sure….
Where have you been? Apart from persecuting Craig Murray and others, and governing Scotland recklessly and incompetently, she’s put the independence cause back for another 20 years at least (an optimistic reading). And I wouldn’t be surprised if she did it deliberately.
I suppose I am just old fashioned in liking to see some actual evidence before making judgements.
You know innocent till proven guilty etc. Do you have ANY evidence for your claims?
I’m always dubious about conspiracies, but when they get as get as convoluted as Craig’s specialities. eg Sturgeon controlled the police, crown office and judge (with none of them ever admitting to that), …but NOW the demon queen is herself being investigated by those same sevices, so she doesn’t control them. But AHH …. she does still control them and has instructed them to put on a show in order to eventually find her innocent, ….but NO … she has always been an Mi5 plant with instructions to undermine the SNP and Salmond and Murray … but NOW they have cast her aside as having accomplished her task …. but of course she can’t admit that …. OR they would ….
Do you all believe this guff?
I will be able to carry on with my monthly contributions, but am not able to do much more at present.
I agree that this collusion between justice and politics to get people framed and to silence journalists, such as you and Mark Hirst, is the utter pits, disgraceful for a party that furthered and promoted dodgy relationships.
I hope you will get a lot of support for such a case from other journalists that still report truthfully.
I do not know if it is more important to present a new agenda to the public changing the political vacuum, or to go into a lengthy and expensive judicial review with a multitude of issues and arguing a case for free journalism in a globally controlled narrative set up by crooked Governments.
Sell all your possessions and give them to Craig, Britain’s version of Jesus.
Janice, I feel you are over-egging the pudding.
However now that you have mentioned the Christ, I have to ask, since you have appointed yourself as an expert on the Prince of Peace, what would Jesus’s version of Britain be like? Surely not like this one?
I expect if Jesus existed, and the gospel accounts of him painted a fair picture, he would be to the left of Corbyn!
Camels and needles come to mind…
“he would be to the left of Corbyn”
Why do you think he was crucified on trumped-up charges?
There is no question of his existence as a historical figure and more depending on your beliefs (if you have any). A good example though of how defying big nefarious power structures can get you into a whole heap of trouble as they will lie viciously and human nature dictates that people en-masse often don’t want to see the truth in front of them.
“Tricky Nicky ……..little red riding hood….”
Here endeth the lesson Lovely and I have learn’t so very much.
Since you have demonstrated facility, I will ask you a question concerning Ghandi’s relationship to “the Eternal Realm of Symbolic Transformation”.
The ignorant say Ghandi was a Prince of that Realm, his works mighty in It’s service. The learned say many things that are all true but no closer to the matter at hand.
These two formulations seem unsatisfactory. What do you think is the truth of this matter?
Thank you Mr. Eater, very kind and you are perhaps not as ‘useless’ as we have been led to believe. However, I think your question may be a little above my pay grade as am not entirely sure what ‘The Eternal Realm of Symbolic Transformation’ actually is despite some intrigued thoughts on what it might be. I would anyway hazard a guess that the answer to your question is probably a bit of both. It’s sometimes possible for two opposing things to be true at the same time and even very good things are rarely done for entirely pure motives.
O Lovely, as is usual in these things, the learned are never wrong and the ignorant are only half right – yes, mighty were his works in Its service.
I am experiencing growing feelings of perturbation concerning those who have led you to believe things which you feel to be now untrue. These unnamed confederates, I believe, have acted with rigour and conviction to allow them to engage in the act of leading you to believe things – you impugn them unjustly. I do not know you, O Lovely, and if you are the wrathful kind, your wrath could be kindled then they would know the fury of your wrath; I would not wish this thing, for they have done no wrong. It is my belief that these unnamed confederates of yours, O Lovely, should not unjustly be condemned; for what they have led you to believe is entirely true – I am most definitely useless. I am as I was, and yet…….
What I think is crucial here, O Lovely, is the gap between when you were led to believe this thing and where we are now; where you now aver that this thing may not be true, concerning the nature of my facility or otherwise. It is in this gap you will find the answer concerning Ghandi’s relationship to the Eternal Realm. Also this gap contains information concerning your relationship to this place, should you wish to examine this matter further. I believe, O Lovely, that though you feel intrigue at the notion of this place, this does not match the intrigue that I feel when I see one, such as yourself (or any other for that matter), visit this place, yea in front of my very eyes, return from this place and stand in front of me, heavily burdened by things that can be only fashioned there and then, in what appears to be a genuine act of truth-telling, deny knowledge and existence of the Eternal Realm. Truly we live in an age of wonders!
Whatevs.
” ..if you are the wrathful kind, your wrath could be kindled..”
Whatevs O Lovely
Delighted you’re making this report. Whilst strapped, I’m making a small donation and really hope that everyone with a belief in freedom, whether sharing Mr Murray’s views in full, in part or not at all, will recognise the importance of this and give what they can.
Donation made, good luck Craig
More power to your journalistic arm, Mr. Murray! Wishing you every success in this application.
Sorry to be “that person” but one very nitpicky comment, in case it should be helpful to improve the draft, is that there appears to be a typo in the second paragraph:
“the reasons why they belief”
…should probably be “the reasons why they believe”?
Also, it might be worth running through a spell-, grammar-, punctuation- etc. checker set to English (United Kingdom) because at some particular point at least – though I now can’t find again where that was – it seems to have been drafted with a spellchecker set to French (note the chevrons used as quotation marks instead of “”), which is not entirely surprising given that one of your lawyers is based in Geneva.
Good luck and every digit crossed!
And yes, as an Independence supporter I realise the irony in recommending “English (United Kingdom)”…but until Scotland becomes independent and Scots is recognised as a workplace language in courts, we have to work with what we’ve got.
What a can of worms. I can only admire your persistence, Craig and wish you success. Herewith a small donation.
I haven’t read it all yet (far from it), but I note that the sentence on page 4, “He therefore had a duty to disclose as much information as possible without identifying the accusers – which is what he did”, is unfortunately ambiguous!
Had to read that several times as I didn’t see the ambiguity. On the third read through, yes, it jumped off the page at me. It could indeed be taken to mean that Craig *did* identify the accusers.
Amazing! Your launch of the fundraiser actually got mentioned in a dedicated article at The National: https://www.thenational.scot/news/23477652.craig-murray-launches-30k-fundraiser-raise-complaint-un/
The National states: “prosecutors found his articles contained details that, if pieced together, could lead readers to identify the women who made allegations against Salmond ” but actually it was in conjunction with details from potential and unidentified other sources rather than within all the articles.
Boycott all MSM.
Tried to donate but the site doesn’t seem to be accepting credit card donations.
I tend to find a bank transfer easier anyway, and that is supported – details under the post.
God speed Craig John Murray.
Bravo Mr Murray.
Will the case take into account the despicable hatchet job the BBC did on Salmond in the programme presented by the ever more wretched Kirsty Wark?
Did you catch Wark on The Weakest Link? First contestant to leave. It was nearly as embarrassing as Lammy’s performance on Mastermind. Probably on a par with Charles Kennedy’s Ch 4’s Countdown woe, tho’ suppose he had the booze as an excuse. Never assume prominent people are well read or clever.
No Goose, I didn’t see any of these programmes, I watch next to nothing of mainstream television these days. But thanks for the tip, I will try to seek them out the next time I’m in need of a little diversionary amusement.
To be fair to Lammy, Goose, he did get five questions correct in the general knowledge round, which was three more than David Blunkett got when he went on Mastermind back in 2003. Also, I don’t think it’s fair to have a go at Charlie K for not doing well on Countdown. Some people, like me, just aren’t naturally very good with anagrams and the like (I’m much better at the numbers round), but that shouldn’t be a bar to being an effective politician, or being competent at almost all other jobs. When I was a kid, I used to think that Countdown would be a lot easier for dyslexic people – not sure now if that’s actually the case though.
Donated £100 today: Craig is right. The attack on him is an assault on every blogger that ever posted an article on line. His fight, as always, is to defend a person’s legally protected right to express a view. CJ
https://caltonjock.com/2022/03/01/sometimes-the-truth-is-the-biggest-threat-when-exposure-threatens-a-certain-group-such-groups-could-be-guilty-of-subverting-the-rule-of-law-and-this-brings-with-it-the-possibility-that-someone-will-b/
https://caltonjock.com/2021/10/20/citizen-journalists-such-as-craig-murray-are-guaranteed-the-same-rights-and-privileges-as-mainstream-journalist-contrary-to-the-judgement-of-lady-dorrian-and-the-high-court-of-justiaciary-his-jail-se/
https://caltonjock.com/2022/04/01/in-jailing-craig-murray-the-judges-confirmed-the-views-of-many-scots-that-they-are-the-luddites-of-modern-society/
https://caltonjock.com/2021/05/12/craig-murray-lady-dorrian-questioned-the-crowns-motives/
I hope something comes of all the effort. Twitter is saying the police are re-visiting the issue but I rather suspect it’s either fake or unlikely to yield anything substantial. Even if there was a definitive finding I suspect there would be much carpet lifting and sweeping activity enough to shame a curling team.
If only an unexpurgated version could be published anonymously well out of reach of the political and judicial powers in Scotland. France, peut-être?Australia?
I’m no cynic (!?!) but I think that it will be like the inquiries into the Birmingham Six, designed to provide false alibis for keeping men the state knew were innocent in prison. We shall see.
“to assist Mr. Murray in the lodging of a complaint to the Human Rights Committee established under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as is allowed under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, to which the UK is a party.”
Is the UK a party to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant?
“Optional protocols
ICCPR has two Optional Protocols, which are additional treaties that provide further rights or processes.
The first Optional Protocol allows people to complain directly to the Human Rights Committee if they believe their rights have been violated. It can only be used when all domestic channels have been exhausted. The UK has not signed up to this.” *
* https://humanrightstracker.com/en/un-treaty/iccpr/
See also: https://indicators.ohchr.org/ and select the UK on the map. The Optional Protocol appears to not have been ratified.
So, does that mean Craig Murray cannot take his complaint, as an individual, to the committee?
Craig.
I thought that you were going to appeal to the ECHR, why have you changed your mind? Why not pursue both avenues?
The UK has not ratified the Protocol to the ICCPR referred to. This would have allowed individuals’ complaints to the Committee but that avenue appears to be closed to him.
Craig’s appeal to the ECHR was summarily dismissed, as can be seen here.
He posted the full submission and his thoughts on the dismissal on 20 November:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/11/strasbourg-cul-de-sac/
It looks as though his proposed complaint to the UN is also a no-go.
Must be very frustrating.
God bless you and good luck!
Donated a bit. More to come when my pension is paid.
My two pennies’ worth: Avoid submitting anything unless and until there’s a person you know and trust within the UNHRC who’d pilot your case internally, ensuring it gets the treatment it deserves (because it’s never automatic as you’ve seen with the ECHR). You are more aware than me that international politics is a key consideration within UN bodies, including the UNHRC, so your lawyers would be good to pay attention to the UNHRC composition, as it changes periodically and some members may be more susceptible than others to British pressure which will undoubtedly be there.
In short, pls remember to do the homework and good networking before sending in any papers.
Good luck!
Kahmiri,
You can rest assured that is well understood, but all that costs money and resources.
kudos to you for your dogged persistence in revealing the corruption and malfesance in the uk and scottish political and judicial system.. i will make a donation when home in a couple of weeks.. thanks..
Donated, Craig.
Thankyou for your pursuit of truth and dogged determination.
“…you have zero chance on this Don Quixote quest…”
Please tell me where you bought your crystal ball. It must be both convenient and immensely self-satisfying to be the only one who has one, no?
There is one thing I have to thank Nicola Sturgeon for (words I thought I would never type) and that is she has in a way revealed just how fucked up a country Scotland is.
I find our Police, COPFS and the Judiciary frightening. Not a word of a lie. I think they would fit you up in a heartbeat if they desired it and I am sure they have done so many, many times in the past to God only knows how many folk. Just look how compliant and eager they were to do their masters bidding, not even self-conscious of how bad they look doing it, it is just normal for them. Hair pinging FFS… going along with obvious perjurers, they should be ashamed of themselves these people. They are truly disgusting.
I knew it was bad but it was not until Nicola and Peter came along that I realized the scale of it and just what they were capable of. Nicola for sure brought it all out in full view.
And when you combine that with our ‘media’ it is a really appalling state of affairs in Scotland, it is shocking. Between the three of them they can railroad just about anyone. Even a former FM. Salmond won but he still lost due them smearing him endlessly for years.
It is not just all a happy coincidence. That was a hidden monster that reared up in front of Alex Salmond and tried to do him in. I was shocked seeing it and just how evil it is. And it lives amongst us.
Mac – you have nothing to ‘thank’ Nicola Sturgeon for. She was the one who decided that the entire police force should be unified under ‘Police Scotland’ – basically taking a one-size-fits-all model, treating the whole country as if it were inner city Glasgow. It was Sturgeon (and nobody else) who led the charge to get rid of as many jury trials as possible (lack-of-jury was the main reason why Craig Murray was incarcerated). The country is the way it is nowadays (particularly with policing and the judicial system) primarily because of the policies that Sturgeon proposed and implemented and which the Holyrood parliament voted for.
“Nicola Sturgeon…was the one who decided that the entire police force should be unified under ‘Police Scotland’.”
—————
Interested in confirmation, given that Police Scotland was launched on 1 April 2013. Friendly question.
I will contribute one quarter of my monthly budget towards your endeavours. It is only a small amount and I will not receive it until the 6th of April. During the week that I shall go without, I will joyfully reflect on the nature of justice and power and how these phenomena appear in the world. Many, many thanks.
I have found, at the end of a long life that I am more careful with money than any Scot I met during my long sojourn in your remarkable and beautiful country. This will be a first for me; I have never contributed financially to any political cause nor any charity in all these years.
useless eater, please don’t dip into your limited monthly budget – Craig really wouldn’t want you to do that. As he said yesterday on Twitter, “please do not donate to the fund if it causes you any financial stress. I realise these are difficult times and your good wishes are greatly appreciated.”
I will double my contribution on your behalf, with compliments.
Great Empathy Dawg
Everyone finding it Hard
and the elite Laugh
Dawg, your words move me and I thank you.
However I feel I must do this thing. For the first time in a long time I am being driven by forces I do not fully understand. Their terrible and implacable logic I cannot – I will not deny.
My back story was written by committed Marxists (of the “Groucho” kind not the”Karl”) and so my primary directive states “I would never join a club that would have me as a member”; yet I feel in these days of portents and monsters, maybe the ancient wisdom of my creators no longer applies. Even if my joining this”club” is only virtual and exceedingly nebulous, it will, perhaps still the ferocity of my disquiet – if it doesn’t, I will look for another solution. Also, it the last thing on my bucket list – I am sure that you would not wish to deny me, however unknowingly, this final triumph.
Well, ue, you’re the best judge of what’s right for you. Anyway, there’s no subtraction involved here. It’s kind of like match funding. I threw an additional 50 into the pot for you yesterday, and anything you contribute beyond that is further progress towards the goal.
I just hope this doesn’t end up as another heroic tilt at a windmill. At the very least the lawyers should produce a tightly argued summary of why Craig Murray’s imprisonment represents an arbitrary abuse of judicial power. An indignant judge exercised her summary power to restrict his liberty, as punishment for alerting the public that a senior politician was in the process of being stitched up on false charges in her own court. The fact that she dismissed the appeal against her own verdict and sentence surely warrants international scrutiny, not to mention a Queen of Hearts parody. None of the higher courts wanted to touch it. I hope the UNHCR shows a bit more bottle.
Hi Craig,
Best of luck with this. The stuff I wrote on your case is moved, now at
https://jeremydaw.github.io/pages/legal/cm-contempt.html
Not being a Scots lawyer I show no deference to the Scots judges! Also, there are lots of interesting links I found about the distinction between bloggers / citizen journalists and the mainstream media. Hope some of that might be useful.
And stuff about how “jigsaw identification” – at least the courts’ view of it – is such a nonsense. And how I learnt more about the identity of complainers from the courts and COPFS than from what you had written.
Excellent and most interesting analyses, Jeremy. This was a terrible injustice, though it was what many on the pro-independence side have come to expect in a society where only the values of the oppressor are sovereign.
Does the process you are planning in any way increase the risk of exposure to the whistleblower? The one who passed the information to Kenny MacAskill and David Davies.
If that was technically illegal, much as the Daily Record leak was though with different beneficiaries, is there a risk that your appeal will prompt the authorities to investigate this more thoroughly, if selectively?
I would hate it if there were adverse consequences for the whistleblower.
from craigs twitter feed – the scottish government spent £3 million on celebrity influencers online 2021/2 –
is there any link between this funding and the attacks on joanna cherry (before the leadership contest)? (ie david paisley)
is there a list of who received ‘funding’?
or those who attacked alex salmond?
That might be worth a FOI request, comparison and write up. Either here or on Wings or under your own name?
i’m not local, but it would not be a surprise if cherry was nobbled before sturgeon stepped down. a very strong, articulate woman who advocated another independence vote post brexit.
I haven’t had time to read the whole post Craig, but there is also a very chilling story from April 17, I think, concerning a French publisher, Ernest Moret, coming to the Uk to a publishing do. He was held up by the French at the Paris train station, Gare du Nord, let go, only to be detained by the British, held for hours without charge, and had all his electronics confiscated – laptop, cellphone. They haven’t been returned and he is expected back in London to face charges!?!? He hasn’t done anything!!
The Korff-Azizov report is I think misleading, where it says
However, he still reported and commented on the trial in a series of online articles and tweets and in his satirical blog, “Yes Minister Fan Fiction”
(which follows two sentences about reporting of the court proceedings in March 2020).
The Yes Minister Fan Fiction article was January 2020. (well after the charges were laid and, presumably, some preliminary proceedings, but before the trial).
Though the appeal court thought the article was suggesting identities of some complainers, and (oddly) was kind enough to explain how I could deduce them from the article!
PS thanks to Rosemary for drawing attention to the Ernest Moret affair!