There’s a lovely little comment at the bottom of this Times piece about the investigation into Tommy Sheridan, that libel case and the possibility of perjury:
The Times can disclose that Lothian and Borders Police have doubled the number of officers assigned to the case to 20 detectives and are said to have gathered a huge volume of evidence that could take them months to examine. They are also said to be considering formally expanding their investigation to include the possibility of charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, as well as perjury and conspiracy to commit perjury.
Although it may be weeks before detectives interview Mr Sheridan and his wife, sources said that there had been a marked increase in police activity over the past two weeks.
At least ten of Mr Sheridan’s former colleagues in the Scottish Socialist Party, including two former MSPs, have been interviewed by police over the past few days.
Is this all to do with his political activism?
Well, put aside the thought that his political activism is not in fact a threat to anyone or anything (being a recently unelected MSP is not really a great starting point to overthrow the international bourgeoisie after all) and think a little harder perhaps.
Perjury is the one crime that the legal system has to crack down on for it is the abuse of that very system itself. That’s why both a peer and an ex-Cabinet Minister have done time for it (both in libel trials as well I seem to remember). If people get the idea that they can lie in their evidence in court then the whole idea of trials goes up in smoke.
20 detectives gathering evidence about a civil case, a libel one? Sure, looks like overkill, but it’s the alleged perjury that’s important, striking as it does at the very heart of the idea of a trial.
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