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| - Former Scottish leader Alex Salmond launched a blistering attack Friday on the government of past protegee Nicola Sturgeon, as a bitter row between the independence movement's most dominant figures continues to play out in public. Salmond gave his evidence, which has potentially huge implications for the country's independence push, at a hearing into the Scottish administration's investigation into 2018 sexual harassment claims against him, which a court later found to be "unlawful" and "tainted by apparent bias". After hours of questioning at the seat of Scotland's Holyrood parliament, Salmond stopped short of calling for his successor to resign but he did say she had broken the ministerial code. "I have no doubt that Nicola broke the ministerial code, but it's not for me to suggest what the consequence should be" Salmond said. He added that he did not believe she was involved in covering up complaints against him but hit out at Sturgeon for using a Covid press conference to question court findings in his favour. Before the hearing Salmond had already accused Sturgeon of misleading the parliament about her role in the investigation, her closest allies of conspiring to have him "imprisoned", and Scotland's prosecution service of working with the government against him. The explosive feud could deal a blow to Sturgeon's hopes of gaining independence from the United Kingdom, which at the moment depend on her Scottish National Party (SNP) performing well in May's local elections. If she is found to have misled parliament, she could even be forced to resign. Salmond looked to defend the independence movement even as he hit out at Sturgeon's government. The rift between the two SNP stalwarts has become evidence to its opponents of how Scotland's governing party is riven by split loyalties. "Scotland has not failed; its leadership has failed" the former first minister said in his opening remarks. "For two years and six months, this has been a nightmare," he added. "The failures of leadership are many and obvious. The government acted illegally but somehow no one is to blame. "Somebody has to accept responsibility," he said. He said the government had deliberately withheld "inconvenient" documents and that the country's most senior civil servant and "presumably" Sturgeon herself had ignored the advice of legal counsel in pursuing a case they were told they could not win. Salmond was arrested in January 2019 and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault -- including attempted rape -- against nine women while he was serving as Scotland's first minister, the job now held by Sturgeon. Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges at a trial last March, where he said the claims were "deliberate fabrications for a political purpose". The most immediate threat to Sturgeon is the accusation that she misled parliament over a meeting between herself and Salmond's former chief of staff, Geoff Aberdein, in March 2018, when she is said to have first been told about the allegations against Salmond. Sturgeon initially told parliament she only learned of the allegations from Salmond himself a few days later. She later claimed to have "forgotten" about the first meeting. Sturgeon -- riding high in the polls on the back of her handling of the coronavirus outbreak -- is pushing for another referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom and become an independent nation. Sturgeon's administration in Edinburgh currently has control over numerous policy areas separately from the central government in London, including health and education. A 2014 referendum in Scotland saw 55 percent vote "no" to independence. However, Sturgeon is hoping a resounding SNP victory in the local elections would provide a mandate that the UK government could not ignore. She is due to appear before the Holyrood committee on Wednesday next week to address Salmond's evidence. jwp-csp/tgb
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