SNP MP Kenny MacAskill has called for a probe into the party’s chief executive over his apparent demands for police action against Alex Salmond.
A document passed to the East Lothian MP appears to show Peter Murrell calling for pressure to be put on Police Scotland in relation to the former First Minister.
Those documents were shared with the Daily Record yesterday.
The paper says they claim to show WhatsApp messages by Murrell in January 2019, after Salmond had appeared in court charged with sexual offences.
It was also the month in which a separate complaint was made about Salmond to the Metropolitan Police.
In another message, Murrell, who is married to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, appears to support action by prosecutors in relation to the former First Minister.
The paper reported that MacAskill has now passed the information on to both the Crown Office and the Holyrood committee probing the Scottish Government’s botched handling of sexual harassment complaints.
MacAskill said: “I can confirm that I received an anonymous letter containing a document. I have notified both Alex Salmond and the Crown and have passed it to the inquiry committee at the Scottish Parliament.
“I would like the Scottish Parliament and the Crown Office to investigate the contents of this document.”
MacAskill, a long-standing ally of Salmond, recently claimed “dark forces” were behind the prosecution of the former First Minister, adding: “As a defence agent of 20 years’ standing and a former justice secretary, I’ve known major police inquiries but never of such magnitude other than for the most heinous of crimes and dangerous of offenders.”
The Crown Office said: “We have no comment to make on the correspondence received from Mr MacAskill.”
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said: “All information received by the committee is considered in line with its statement on the handling of information.”
Police Scotland said it “carried out a thorough investigation”
Earlier this month Murrell told the Holyrood committee that he was not present at meetings between the First Minister and Alex Salmond in early 2018.
In a letter to the MSPs, Murrell, said that he “had the sense that something serious was being discussed” by the pair but that his wife “couldn’t discuss the details.”
The Holyrood inquiry – formed after Salmond won a judicial review into the government’s complaints procedures – wrote to Murrell in July asking for information.
Part of their investigation is looking into whether Sturgeon broke the ministerial code by meeting Salmond while he was being investigated over alleged sexual misconduct.
In his response, Murrell said: “I knew about the meetings between Nicola and Alex Salmond at our home on April 2 and July 14, 2018 and I had the sense that something serious was being discussed.”
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