Scottish Government investigation into Alex Salmond 'may have accelerated his death', claims friend
The Scottish Government's botched handling of complaints against Alex Salmond may have "accelerated his death", a friend of the late independence campaigner has said.
David Davis, a senior Conservative MP, was close to the former first minister despite the pair having contrasting political views.
The former UK Government minister claimed today a "huge pall" had been placed over the final years of Salmond's life as he faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault, all of which he denied.
"Who knows, it might even have accelerated his death, I don't know, I can't comment on that," he told BBC Radio Scotland. "But I want to see this exposed, opened up, so the Scottish Government is forced to answer questions on this matter."
Davis has spoken several times in the House of Commons about alleged malfeasance on the part of the Scottish Government in regards to an investigation it launched in 2018.
He used Commons privilege in 2021 - which means MPs cannot be sued for statements made in the House - to claim senior Government figures had "interfered" in the process.
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Nicola Sturgeon previously rejected a suggestion by Davis that she knew of complaints against Salmond earlier than she told MSPs.
The botched investigation in 2018 was started when two civil servants lodged complaints of historic sexual harassment against Salmond dating back to his time as first minister from 2007-2014.
The senior Nationalist, who had by then left both Holyrood and Westminster, denied wrongdoing and claimed the investigation against him was flawed.
Salmond launched an online crowdfunder which raised £100,000 and led to him taking the Scottish Government to the Court of Session in November 2018, where a judge later ruled in his favour and described Holyrood's probe as being "tainted by bias".
The bungled investigation, which destroyed the long-standing friendship between Salmond and Sturgeon, cost the public purse over £500,000.
Davis said today: "A few years ago I had a debate in the House of Commons in which I highlighted the malfeasance of the Scottish Government, and asked for Holyrood to review what had been done - the operation 'tainted by bias', in the words of the Scottish court.
"But Holyrood failed as it does not have the protection of privilege that I had in the House of Commons. What I'm trying to do, in parallel with whatever Alex's estate choose to do, is open up this whole issue.
"Give those powers to the Scottish Parliament, the powers of privilege - that is, protection against prosecution or lawsuit - and the right to summon people to provide witness. I want to see a separation of the powers of the state and the judiciary - it's true in the rest of the UK but not in Scotland.
"And I want to see a duty of candour on the Government. It's a question of how I ensure this happens quickly, so that we can get proper answers to what exactly happened in the treatment of Alex Salmond, which frankly, put a huge pall over the last several years of this great man's life.
"Who knows, it might even have accelerated his death, I don't know, I can't comment on that. But I want to see this exposed, opened up, so the Scottish Government is forced to answer questions on this matter."
Davis revealed he was due to meet his old friend for dinner on Sunday evening upon his return from North Macedonia.
Salmond collapsed and died from a heart attack on Saturday while attending a political conference in the southern European country.
At the time of his death, the political veteran was pursuing action through the Court of Session and Police Scotland in the aftermath of his acquittal at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2020 of charges of sexual assault, and in relation to the flawed Scottish Government investigation.
Salmond's lawyer Gordon Dangerfield told the Court in August last year that Salmond was seeking "significant damages" and compensation for loss of earnings that could total millions of pounds from ministers.
He alleged "malfeasance" by various former and current Scottish Government civil servants with his legal team arguing that they "conducted themselves improperly, in bad faith and beyond their powers, with the intention of injuring Mr Salmond”.
Kenny MacAskill, the acting Alba Party leader, said it would be up to Salmond's family whether the court action continued.
He added: “My own position is that I will respect whatever the family decide, but I would certainly hope and I believe that they are likely to continue this, because that court case will expose, I believe, malfeasance amongst individuals and institutions that really has to be brought out to allow history to properly remember Alex Salmond.”
Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP and friend of the late leader, said yesterday: "Alex has an outstanding civil action and there are outstanding criminal investigations which we can't say very much about. I think it's a terrible tragedy that Alex has died before he was able to be completely vindicated, but I believe that time will vindicate his name."
Police Scotland has confirmed a criminal investigation into evidence given by a senior Scottish Government civil servant to a Holyrood inquiry into how complaints were handled by the SNP administration is also still ongoing.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on live litigation.”
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