FORMER diplomat Craig Murray has launched a £30,000 fundraiser to lodge a complaint over his “substantial imprisonment” with a United Nations committee.
The blogger, who was jailed for eight months after a court ruled he shared information on his website which could have identified Alex Salmond’s accusers, has repeatedly lost legal challenges against his conviction and imprisonment in the Scottish and UK courts.
Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan, wrote a series of articles on the former first minister’s high court trial regarding sexual harassment allegations in 2020.
The 64-year-old was jailed for contempt of court after prosecutors found his articles contained details that, if pieced together, could lead readers to identify the women who made allegations against Salmond.
The former FM was acquitted of the charges against him in March 2021, which included sexual assault and attempted rape.
On his blog, Murray suggested developments in the SNP finance probe will give his case more credence to being heard by the UN Human Rights Committee.
The committee is a body of independent experts that monitor the “implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its States parties”.
“I am afraid it will take funds to get my case before the UN,” Murray said.
“£30,000 will get us over the line, and more than that will enable us to do a more thorough job (there are over 1000 pages of supporting documentation) and to pay the costs for further organisations and experts to become involved.
“I will remind you that among the urgent issues on which we seek comment from the UN, is the ruling that bloggers and citizen journalists do not benefit from the protections for free speech enjoyed by mainstream media.”
Murray also told readers he had requested an initial draft report to be prepared by the team taking the case forward.
Douwe Korff, a professor of international law and London Metropolitan University, and Sharof Azizov, a human rights litigation expert based in Geneva, were named at the top of screenshots of the draft report.
Korff and Azizov, who noted in the introduction they had known Murray for “many years”, set out across four pages the timeline of Salmond’s trial, subsequent arrest and developments within the SNP in recent weeks.
“I keep going with this because it is important to lift this cloud that looms over Scotland’s political life, that leaves journalists in fear of persecution, that threatens bloggers, unfairly stigmatises me, and is frankly a disgrace,” Murray said.
