Nicola Sturgeon has said she believes MSPs who sat on the Scottish Parliament committee investigating the Scottish Government's botched handling of complaints against Alex Salmond were ‘taking direction’ from him or his allies.
The former first minister made the claim in her memoir entitled Frankly which was intended to be released on Thursday, however, went on sale in Waterstones bookshops on Monday.
Writing in the chapter 'Alex Salmond', Ms Sturgeon said that the work of the Scottish Parliament committee set up to investigate the Scottish Government’s handling of the original complaints against her predecessor created the “most intense” feeling of being on trial.
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Ms Sturgeon said: “If it sometimes felt to me like a ‘witch-hunt’, it is probably because for some of them [MSPs on the committee] that is exactly what it was.
“I was told, and I believe it to be true, that some of the opposition MSPs were taking direction from Alex himself - though possibly through an intermediary - on the points to pursue and the questions to ask.”
Ms Sturgeon described giving evidence to the committee on March 3 2021 as not just a “gruelling experience” and “brutal episode” of her life but a “cathartic one”.
She wrote: “It..gave the significant number of people who tuned in to watch the chance to see for themselves how partisan some of the committee members were being.”
Giving evidence, Ms Sturgeon told the committee she did not become aware of any allegations against Mr Salmond until 2018 and described this as the “moment in my life that I will never forget”.
The committee was set up after a judicial review in 2019 concluded that the Scottish government's investigation into Mr Salmond's alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias.
Mr Salmond, who died of a heart attack last October, was later awarded more than £500,000 in legal expenses.
He was subsequently cleared of 13 sexual offence charges in 2020, including attempted rape.
Later in her book, Ms Sturgeon suggests that Alex Salmond leaked details about the investigation into sexual misconduct claims made against him- something fervently denied by his supporters.
The former first minister also claimed her predecessor was “determined to destroy her” and he "died without reckoning with himself", adding that he was a "man who was not prepared to look honestly at himself in the mirror".
Ms Sturgeon denied releasing details about the probe, or having any knowledge of who did, however, she added it would have been "classic Alex" to have been behind the leak.
Alba party leader Kenny MacAskill has since called her a "hypocrite" while the party's former general secretary, Chris McEleny, described the ex-SNP leader's claim as a "fabrication".
MacAskill recently called for a public inquiry into the handling of sexual misconduct complaints against Mr Salmond, who he took over from as Alba party leader.
