A SENIOR official of the Scottish Socialist Party who was jailed for refusing to hand over internal documents to a court was last night freed and immediately began a tirade against former leaderTommy Sheridan.
Alan McCombes spent the weekend in jail after Judge Lady Smith ruled in the Court of Session that he had been in contempt of court. However, she agreed to release the party's press and policy co-ordinator from Saughton prison after the documents were submitted to the court.
In his first interview after 72 hours in jail, Mr McCombes said his old ally had "thrown the mother of all tantrums" by attacking his party colleagues in an open letter to the press.
Mr McCombes had refused to give up the minute of an SSP meeting in November 2004 at which Mr Sheridan resigned as leader.
The News of The World hopes to use the minute in its defence of a defamation action brought by Mr Sheridan after the paper made claims about his private life.
On Sunday, the SSP's national council agreed to hand over the minute to secure Mr McCombes's release.
Yesterday, Lady Smith said she expected the SSP to pay the expenses of officials who raided its offices at the weekend in search of the minute.
'Poison' feud Page 6
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