FORMER diplomat Craig Murray has claimed he has moved location to the Outer Hebrides amid a row over an SNP MP’s hacked emails.
Last week we told how Murray claimed to have copies of hacked emails belonging to Glasgow South MP Stewart McDonald.
McDonald said he feared the documents would be made public after he fell victim to a phishing scam that he suggested may have come from the Russian spy service.
Days later Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he had obtained the messages and that he would publish them, hinting that the cache contained correspondence between McDonald and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
And now, Murray has said he has moved location to the Outer Hebrides following a visit from police officers, and claimed he had instructed lawyers to prepare a counsel’s opinion on the legality of publishing the content of McDonald’s emails.
Writing on Twitter on Sunday night, Murray said: “I am now happily in the Outer Hebrides. This makes it much harder to send the police to intimidate me because a) they will have to find me b) I shall be too drunk to notice.”
In a later post on Monday morning, the diplomat added: “This morning, lawyers are acting on my request to prepare a counsel’s opinion on the legality of publishing those of Stewart MacDonald’s emails which are in the public interest to be revealed.
“This may take a day or two.”
Murray initially claimed he had gained access to the cache of correspondence after speaking to people to find out “who might have them”.
The ex-diplomat was previously jailed over blog posts that could have identified Alex Salmond’s accusers, and last year lost a legal challenge against his prison sentence.
The 63-year-old blogger and pro-independence campaigner detailed Salmond’s high court trial in 2020, and was later jailed for eight months for contempt of court. Prosecutors said the articles contained details which, if pieced together, could lead readers to identify the women who made allegations against Salmond, of which the former FM was acquitted.
Lord Calloway rejected Murray’s appeal, stating he showed “a total lack of remorse” over his actions.
