KEITH Brown has been urged to use his powers as Justice Secretary to free on compassionate grounds the blogger and former diplomat Craig Murray.
Sally Mackenzie, a National reader from Lochbroom, said the Justice and Veterans Secretary has the power to use such a mechanism in the same way as Kenny MacAskill released Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
Murray was jailed for contempt of court over his reporting of Alex Salmond’s trial on sexual assault allegations, of which he was cleared.
Mackenzie told The National: “Mr Murray’s health is so poor that the court refused the option of Community Service on the grounds that he isn't fit enough.
“Instead, the court sentenced Mr Murray to eight months in HMP Edinburgh for a civil offence of contempt of court.
“I believe that Mr Murray is the only civil prisoner in Scotland. He is certainly the only journalist imprisoned for having reported on a court case for 70 years. And he is the one and only person in the whole world to be charged with jigsaw identification.”
She added: “There are so many inhumane elements to the treatment of Mr Murray that I can barely believe that they are happening and that Keith Brown can live with himself whilst he apparently takes no action to release Mr Murray.
“Your readers will know Mr Murray as someone who is active in reporting on human rights issues around the world and who suffered as a British Ambassador to Uzbekistan because he did not accept that the Uzbekistan government should go unremarked when they literally boiled to death their political opponents.
“The Foreign Office cooked up charges against Mr Murray and then when they had to drop those false charges he was sacked.”
Mackenzie claimed Murray was being ill-treated at HMP Edinburgh, including being kept in his cell for more than 22 hours a day.
She said she had written to Brown “some weeks ago” but had received no response.
“I beg The National to use its position as a well-respected and widely read newspaper to take up this cause and help to release poor Mr Murray from this torment.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The decision of the independent court is not something the Scottish Government can comment on nor intervene in.
“Concerns can be raised via independent prison monitors who are available in every prison to provide a view of a prisoner’s treatment and conditions.”
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