FAMILY and supporters of the man thought to be the first person in the world to be convicted of “jigsaw identification”, Craig Murray, are preparing to greet him when he leaves a Scots prison on St Andrew’s Day.

The pro-independence blogger and former UK diplomat who is also the first journalist in 70 years to be jailed in Scotland, will leave HMP Saughton in Edinburgh after serving four months of an eight-month sentence imposed after judges ruled his blog coverage of Alex Salmond’s trial could identify four complainers.

Donald Blair, chair of the Craig Murray Justice Campaign (CMJC), told The National that dozens of supporters could greet Murray when he is freed: “We might get about 20 or 30 people but it’s difficult because it's a weekday, so people are working and such like.

“He's borne up pretty well for four months in effectively solitary confinement, so he’s quite strong mentally, and I'm sure he will be okay when he comes out.

“He's obviously going to be missing his family, he's got a nine-month-old son he's hardly seen. So I'm sure that will be his first port of call back home and just reacquaint himself with family life.”

The CMJC has called for a show of solidarity from fellow independence supporters, human rights activists and those “who value justice”, to attend Murray’s release, after which he is expected to make a speech about his experience of jail and what he believes his incarceration means for Scottish democracy.

Nadira, his wife, said: “Craig has had support from all over the world. I’d like to thank everyone who protested against the ruthless and flawed judicial system that sentenced him to eight months' imprisonment and is such a stain on our international reputation.

“Nevertheless, his return to his young family – Cameron (12) and Oscar (nine months) – in time for Christmas casts a beam of sunlight on an otherwise sullen and cynical Scotland stuck in second gear.”

Murray was said to be well advanced with an appeal to the Nobile Officium, the highest appeal available in Scotland, after a review of his case was rejected by the UK Supreme Court without any stated reason.

If this attempt fails it will mark the final stage of his domestic appeal over the case, but if necessary, Murray will take it to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

He and his lawyers remain confident of a successful appeal as soon as the case is dealt with outside Scotland and is no longer “entangled” with domestic politics.

Blair said the committee was uncertain if prison authorities would stick to the intended release time of 10am.

“It may very well be that the prison authorities, who undoubtedly will have wind of a reception committee and may attempt to disturb the arrangements by releasing earlier or later,” he said.

“To the best of my knowledge, you can't get a late check out from Saughton like you can at a Marriot Hotel, you get kicked out as and when they kick you out, which traditionally tends to be at six o'clock in the morning.

“There will be some people there from 6am, just in case the prison authorities decide that's the route they want to go down.”

He said Murray’s release brings to a close this stage in a scandal “which darkens Scotland’s legal reputation at home and abroad”.

“Craig has served four months in prison and yet to this day does not know what it is that he wrote that has landed him in prison.

“He at no point revealed the names of anyone in the case and has never been told what pieces of information he provided formed parts of the ‘jigsaw’ or who else provided the other parts of the evidence and has never been presented with any evidence that anyone actually did identify anyone on the basis of what he wrote.

“To have been taken from his family and to have lost his liberty on this basis is a stain on Scotland’s justice system.”