ALEX Salmond's long-awaited evidence to the Holyrood probe into his successful legal battle with Nicola Sturgeon's government has been published today.
Almost 150 pages of legal papers and correspondence were released this morning by the Scottish Parliament committee investigating the saga.
In the documents, which date back to 2018, Salmond’s lawyers repeatedly warn the Government that it was acting unlawfully, and offer mediation and arbitration to resolve the issue, instead of going to court.
The offers of arbitration were turned down by the Scottish Government which then lost the legal case – a decision which cost taxpayers more than £600,000.
Included in Salmond's evidence are his own legal advice, court papers and letters between his lawyers and the Scottish Government's civil service chief Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans.
The letters and petition for Judicial Review set out Salmond's lawyers assessment of the illegalities in the complaints' procedure and its application.
MSPs are looking at how the Scottish Government botched a probe into sexual misconduct claims made against Salmond in 2018.
On January 8 2019, Lord Pentland ruled in the Court of Session that the decisions and reports of the Permanent Secretary were “unlawful in respect that they were taken in circumstances which were procedurally unfair and in respect that they were tainted by apparent bias”.
The Government’s error was in appointing an investigating officer who had been in prior contact with his accusers.
Salmond’s legal advice was published on the Committee website this morning along with explanatory letters from Levy and McRae ahead of an oral evidence session by the Holyrood committee.
Parliament will tomorrow debate the call from the Committee for the Government to publish its own legal advice.
Salmond had previously missed deadlines for submitting the evidence, complaining that legal obstacles, including the threat of prosecution, made it impossible to present a comprehensive picture.
However MSPs last month urged him to submit what he could.
Scottish Government ministers and officials have refused to release some material on the ground of legal privilege.
The former First Minister stood trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of sexual offences in March this year and was cleared of all charges.
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