THE Lord Advocate James Wolffe will today give evidence to the Holyrood inquiry investigating the Scottish Government’s mishandling of complaints against Alex Salmond.
His appearance comes after Salmond called for his resignation as head of the Crown Office on Friday during his appearance before MSPs.
Salmond hit out over the deletion – on the orders of the Crown Office – of parts of his written evidence to the committee and said he had been threatened with prosecution over the matter.
“My evidence has been published, then subsequently censored by intervention of the Crown Office – evidence that it had previously agreed was lawful,” he said.
READ MORE: Andrew Tickell: Understanding the legalities behind the Holyrood Committee
“Even today, I appear before you under the explicit threat of prosecution if I reveal evidence for which the committee has asked. Not to fulfil my oath and tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would be a contempt, but the Crown Office says that it might lead to prosecution.
“People should just stop and think for a moment about that. The ability of any witness before any Parliament to tell the truth and fulfil their oath is effectively being questioned by the Crown Office.”
Nicola Sturgeon will give evidence on Wednesday.
Appearing in Holyrood last week the Lord Advocate denied involvement in the Crown Office's request that parliament censored some of Salmond's evidence but failed to reveal why written evidence from the former first minister was heavily redacted.
Salmond's legal team called on Wolffe to explain the "astonishing" intervention after much of the submission was already in the public domain.
The former first minister's evidence was published by parliament on Monday evening last week.
However, after a letter from the Crown Office apparently suggesting parts of it could amount to contempt of court, parliament removed the submission on Tuesday before replacing it with a redacted version. It prompted Salmond to pull out of his scheduled appearance last Wednesday to give oral evidence to the Holyrood inquiry.
Speaking in parliament last Wednesday, Wolffe, who is head of the Crown Office and sits in cabinet as the Scottish Government's chief legal adviser, insisted there was no political pressure on the decision.
In response to a question about whether he was consulted about the letter from the Crown Office, Wolffe said: "No, I was not. The decisions in relation to this matter were made by senior professional prosecutors acting independently as they always do, and without reference to the law officers."
Shortly after Wolffe's appearance, the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body said the decision to redact the evidence after receiving a letter from the Crown Office was "taken collectively and with great care".
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