The allegations were made after the former first minister’s 2020 trial, when he was cleared of 14 charges of sexual assault.
04:30, 26 Apr 2026
Alex Salmond speaks to the media in 2020 after walking free from court(Image: Getty Images)
Perjury claims at Alex Salmond’s trial continue to be investigated by Crown prosecutors five years after a complaint was initiated. The allegations were made after the former first minister’s 2020 trial, when he was cleared of 14 charges of sexual assault.
Salmond’s lawyers wrote to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in March 2021 setting out a number of concerns and an advocate and senior prosecutor were assigned to the case. The probe is still active.
Ex-SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “There was great concern over some of the evidence heard at trial and I know Alex’s lawyers wrote in detail to the Crown Office on a number of points. An investigation was launched in the wake of that correspondence but inexplicably five years later the matter has not been concluded.
Former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond leaves the High Court surrounded by police and the media
“The Crown has been keen to pursue prosecutions against anyone deemed to have breached court orders in relation to the anonymity of complainers, but the same effort has certainly not been put into investigating perjury claims. In the last five years there has been no substantive progress on an issue of major public importance.
“Alex remained very concerned about this up until his death, and many people across Scotland, including myself, are still concerned.”
Salmond died of a heart attack in North Macedonia at age 69. COPFS said: “Correspondence from Mr Salmond’s solicitor has been received and will be responded to in due course.”
First Minister John Swinney has faced questions since the Sunday Mail revealed WhatsApp messages last week appearing to show senior SNP figures plotting to have Salmond jailed.
The messages show them doubting the experiences amounted to criminal offences, with one woman furious her name had been given to detectives.
Others saw senior figures saying they wanted to see Salmond jailed. Asked if the messages showed a conspiracy against Salmond, Swinney did not answer directly.
He said: “These messages relate to events that happened a long time ago and which have been examined and explored at significant detail over a whole range of different forums. And I don’t think they really add anything to what any of us knew about these issues before.”
Tory MP David Davis, a close friend of Salmond, has called for a probe into our revelations by an independent police force “beyond the control of the SNP”.
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At Salmond’s trial his lawyer Gordon Jackson said he believed “there was a concerted effort made by people in the government to influence the process, to get it as best they could in terms of criminal prosecution”.
He alleged those efforts were motivated by revenge because Salmond had won his judicial review in January 2019, after the Scottish Government admitted it had botched an internal inquiry into two sexual harassment complaints against him.
Lady Dorrian refused to allow much of that material to be used in court but allowed other messages as evidence.
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