A MALICIOUS prosecution of the former administrators of Rangers in connection with the collapsed club fraud case could amount to corruption and should be the subject of a public inquiry.
That is the the view of Scottish Conservatives finance spokesman Murdo Fraser who has told the Scottish Parliament that David Whitehouse and Paul Clark of Duff and Phelps were "treated like terrorists" in the failed police investigation and compared what happened to what you would expect from "Putin's Russia".
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark received a £24m settlement after their damages case against Scotland's senior law officer, the Lord Advocate and Police Scotland's chief constable.
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark were subjected to criminal proceedings with others in the wake of Craig Whyte's purchase of Rangers from Sir David Murray for £1 in May 2011 and its subsequent sale before a judge dismissed the charges.
Mr Whitehouse, of Cheshire, then brought an original damages claim against the Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC and the former chief constable of Police Scotland, Phil Gormley, for £9m. Mr Clark, of Surrey, sued for £5m.
Mr Whitehouse and Mr Clark's actions stemmed from their treatment by the police and prosecution authorities.
The Lord Advocate has previously admitted malicious prosecution and a breach of human rights in the investigation while the administrators sought to clear their names.
Mr Whitehouse is now pursuing criminal proceedings over the affair.
Mr Fraser, who brought the affair to MSPs, wanted reassurances that the sums paid out will not affect the Crown Office or policing budget.
He said: "This is an absolute scandal. Innocent individuals were treated like terrorists.
"They were arrested, taken from their homes, held in police custody, risked imprisonment and financial ruin. They committed no crimes and there was no evidence of any significance against them.
"As a consequence of what the Lord Advocate has now admitted, prosecuted were motivated by malice.
"This is what we might see in Putin's Russia not in 21st century Scotland."
He said the taxpayers wer entitled to know whether the £24m has been paid.
"There are serious issues to be addressed," he said. "It could amount to corruption."
Finance secretary Kate Forbes said the liability would not be met from the Crown Office budget adding: "Arrangements have been made so that it will not effect the operational effectiveness."
In response to the public inquiry call, she said that the Lord Advocate would make a statement to the Scottish Parliament after the cases involving the men had ended.
Four years ago London-based legal firm Holman Fenwick Willan, who were acting for Duff and Phelps, was awarded £500,000 costs after police and prosecutors were found by the High Court in London to have "abused state powers" by carrying out an illegal raid and seizing privileged documents in connection with the failed Rangers fraud case.
The moves came after Mr Fraser and the party’s shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr last week met with two of the men who had their charges dropped.
Mr Fraser went on: “This was not just a mistake but a sinister abuse of state power that strikes at the very heart of Scotland’s criminal justice system.
“It will end up costing taxpayers tens of millions of pounds yet we have heard no explanation from either the Lord Advocate or the SNP justice secretary.
“Who could possibly imagine that Scotland would become the kind of country in which the full power of the state to prosecute people who they knew to be innocent?
“People will be angry, disgusted and deeply concerned that Sturgeon’s Scotland is capable of the type of tactics we typically see in Putin’s Russia.
“Meeting with two of these men and hearing their personal accounts was harrowing and I admire they and their lawyers’ tenacious fight for justice.
“If the Crown had got their way, they would have been jailed, financially ruined and had their reputations destroyed.
“A full public inquiry is absolutely vital to ensure the public see exactly what went wrong and why. Anything short of that would send out the message that lessons have not been learned.”
Mr Whyte ended up being the last man standing in the fraud conspiracy case and was acquitted of taking over the club by fraud at the end of a seven-week trial.
Former Rangers chief executive Charles Green is also suing Police Scotland for wrongful arrest after charges against him were dropped.
Key club takeover figure David Grier, and executive with Duff & Phelps is continuing with a multi-million-pound wrongful arrest claim case against the police and prosecutors over the botched probe into the takeover the Ibrox club by Mr Whyte, making accusations of "misconduct".
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