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Monday, 17 December 2007, 15:28 GMT

Sheridan fury over perjury charge

tommy sheridan Former socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan has said he is "furious" over how his arrest on perjury charges was handled.

The charges relate to a police inquiry into his defamation case against the News of the World last year.

The 43-year-old was arrested in Edinburgh on Sunday while his house in Glasgow was searched by nine officers.

He said: "My house has been ransacked, my wife has been traumatised, and my two-year-old child reduced to tears by the presence of nine police officers."

He added: "So when you ask me how I feel, I am shocked and shattered.

Talk show

"I am furious. My life is on hold until this is cleared up. I will fight the accusations against me."

The Sunday tabloid was ordered to pay £200,000 damages last year after it made a series of lurid allegations about Mr Sheridan's private life.

During the defamation case witnesses gave conflicting evidence about the circumstances of the allegations.

Two months after the proceedings concluded in August 2006, prosecutors ordered police to carry out a criminal investigation into allegations of perjury.

Semi-detached house

On Sunday lunchtime, police officers attended Mr Sheridan's family home in the Cardonald area of Glasgow.

A police team then visited him after he finished his weekly talk show at an Edinburgh radio station.

He was taken to Gayfield Police Station in the Scottish capital, where he was questioned for eight hours before being charged with perjury.

Party split

Mr Sheridan gave a statement upon his release from custody, in which he vowed to clear his name, no matter how long it took.

His solicitor, Aamer Anwar, condemned the "excessive actions" of Lothian and Borders Police.

A spokesperson for the News of the World - which is owned by Rupert Murdoch - said they did not wish to comment.

Mr Sheridan, the former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, won his case against the newspaper after a four-week hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

When the Scottish Socialists split, Mr Sheridan, a father-of-one, formed the rival Solidarity party, but neither he nor his former colleagues were returned to Holyrood in the May 2007 elections.



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