{"id":30418,"date":"2019-01-24T13:23:25","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T13:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30418"},"modified":"2019-01-24T13:23:25","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T13:23:25","slug":"scottish-ex-leader-alex-salmond-arrested-for-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30418","title":{"rendered":"Scottish ex-leader Alex Salmond arrested for ‘sexual harassment’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former Scottish First Minister and pro-independence figurehead Alex Salmond has been arrested and charged following a probe into the allegations of sexual harassment, AFP news agency reported citing police sources.<\/p>\n

“We can confirm that a 64-year-old man has been arrested and charged,” a spokeswoman for Police Scotland said on Thursday\u00a0<\/span>in response to a question about the reports of Salmond’s arrest, without naming the pro-independence politician.<\/p>\n

Salmond became Scottish first minister in 2007 and took Scotland<\/a> to the brink of independence in an historic referendum in 2014 before stepping down.<\/p>\n

He is set to appear in court later on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A staunch nationalist, Salmond resigned from the Scottish National Party last year after it emerged the police were probing two harassment allegations against him.<\/p>\n

He has fiercely denied the claims, which were formally raised with the Scottish government last January and date back to 2013 when he was still in office.<\/p>\n

Salmond took legal action against the government – now led by former party colleague Nicola Sturgeon – over how it handled the complaints process against him in the case.<\/p>\n

He won his judicial review earlier this month after the government conceded it had acted unlawfully while investigating the harassment claims against him.<\/p>\n

However, Police Scotland last year launched their own separate investigation into the complaints, made by two female members of staff, eventually leading to Salmond’s arrest, AFP reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salmond’s charisma has proved hugely effective through his career, particularly in the long campaign for independence.<\/p>\n

But it also disguised what aides called an “explosive temper” and a talent for the scathing political put-down.<\/p>\n

His supporters praise his unflagging determination and his political know-how, while his opponents brand him arrogant and misogynistic with a penchant for populism.<\/p>\n

Many on both sides agree that he is one of the most talented politicians of his generation.<\/p>\n

Sociable in public, Salmond is discreet about his private life. His wife Moira is 17 years older than he is and is only rarely seen by his side.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Scottish First Minister and pro-independence figurehead Alex Salmond has been arrested and charged following a probe into the allegations of sexual harassment, AFP news agency reported citing police sources. “We can confirm that a 64-year-old man has been arrested and charged,” a spokeswoman for Police Scotland said on Thursday\u00a0in response to a question about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}