Salmond takes legal advice on threat

ALEX Salmond has sought advice from leading figures at the Scottish Bar following suggestions he could be sued over his attack on a prominent human rights lawyer.

Scotland on Sunday has learned advice was given on an informal basis by Duncan Hamilton, an advocate and former Nationalist MSP, and Roddy Dunlop QC, an expert in defamation law.

The development follows a difficult week for Salmond, which saw his relationship with the legal establishment deteriorate after he criticised Lord Hope, one of two Scottish judges to sit at the UK Supreme Court, and Tony Kelly, a solicitor who represents prisoners in human rights cases.

Salmond was accused of undermining the independence of the judiciary after he made a personal attack on Hope arguing his rulings were allowing the "vilest people on the planet" to win compensation from the public purse.

The remarks, made in an interview for Holyrood magazine, were accompanied by an attack on Kelly, who acted for prisoners claiming compensation in slopping-out cases.

In the interview, Salmond suggested that Kelly, a visiting professor at Strathclyde University who defended the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was making "an incredibly comfortable living" from representing the human rights of prisoners. Referring to Kelly, he suggested that the judicial system was "there to serve their interests and make sure they can make an incredibly comfortable living by trailing around the prison cells and other establishments of Scotland trying to find what might be construed as a breach of human rights of an unlimited liability back to 1999".

Kelly has taken legal advice claiming the comments undermined his integrity.

Last week, there were indications that Kelly was considering suing Salmond. But no case has yet been brought against the First Minister.

Salmond's attack has angered the legal establishment, with the Faculty of Advocates and Law Society of Scotland taking the unusual step of releasing a joint statement warning him not to subvert judicial independence.

Scotland on Sunday understands that Salmond sought his own informal legal advice after the furore erupted, but he has not taken the step of instructing lawyers.

A spokesman for the First Minister said: "No legal instructions have been issued further to that and there is no case to defend. Informal discussions go on all the time. But there is a world of difference between that and formally instructing a lawyer and that hasn't happened."