Salmond got respectful send-off he deserved - Alba chairwoman

Respect for Alex Salmond "on an planetary stage" led to his stately repatriation aft his decease successful North Macedonia past week, the Alba Party chairwoman has said.

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a adjacent person of the erstwhile archetypal minister, draped a Saltire implicit his coffin earlier a subject defender of honour carried his assemblage to a backstage jet.

Salmond had been attending a league - and Ahmed-Sheikh said helium had spoken to galore radical who grew to respect him, which contributed to wide daze implicit his fatal bosom attack.

She said dignitaries including the Macedonian president had fixed a large woody of clip to guarantee Salmond was fixed a send-off that "he truthful rightly deserved".

Speaking to the BBC, she said: "The daze was of people due to the fact that Alex had passed, but besides due to the fact that radical had got to cognize Alex implicit the preceding days, and emotion him and respect him.

"That is wherefore radical felt it each the much - it wasn’t conscionable a idiosyncratic who had passed, it was a idiosyncratic who had touched them, who had listened to them, understood them and intelligibly cared astir radical and gave them time."

Ahmed-Sheikh was with Salmond astatine the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy league successful the municipality of successful Ohrid successful North Macedonia.

His mood, she said, was 1 of excitement - astir the aboriginal of Scotland and his party.

"He lit up each azygous room, each azygous code helium gave, each reply to each question helium gave – radical appreciated," she said.

"Because helium had a large mode of not conscionable delivering an answer, but with an mentation starring up to the reply truthful that radical understood the reasoning down the man."

The Alba person was successful the mediate of luncheon with different delegates erstwhile helium suffered a bosom onslaught and was fixed CPR.

Some of the details anterior to this infinitesimal person been reported successful the property - but Ahmed-Sheikh said she wished to springiness her relationship to Salmond's household alone.

The instrumentality of his assemblage to Scotland, connected a backstage pitchy provided by businessman Sir Tom Hunter, was foremost successful her mind.

She had a Saltire emblem specially made to screen his coffin.

"The superior nonsubjective was to get Alex to Moira [his wife] and his household arsenic rapidly and respectfully arsenic possible, but successful a mode that helium truthful deserved," she said.

A lawyer and erstwhile actress, Ahmed-Sheikh has worked with Salmond since 2000 erstwhile she defected to the SNP from the Scottish Conservatives.

Despite starting retired arsenic governmental rivals, she and Salmond became steadfast comrades successful politics, concern and successful beingness implicit the years.

After the 2014 independency referendum, Salmond resigned arsenic archetypal curate and turned his attraction backmost to a vocation successful Westminster.

As helium bid for the Gordon spot successful the 2015 UK Parliamentary election, Ahmed-Sheikh contested the Ochil and South Perthshire constituency and they often campaigned together.

Both were successful, with Ahmed-Sheikh becoming Scotland's archetypal pistillate Muslim MP.

In 2021, she was unveiled arsenic a Holyrood campaigner for Salmond's Alba Party - which had grown retired of a dissatisfaction with the SNP's efforts towards securing Scottish independence.

Ahmed-Sheikh besides worked with Salmond connected his idiosyncratic projects - their co-owned accumulation institution Slainte Media produced The Alex Salmond Show, which was controversially shown connected Russian authorities broadcaster RT until 2022.

Last year, Salmond and his woman Moira travelled to London to enactment Ahmed-Sheikh's filmmaker husband, Zulfikar Sheikh, erstwhile helium received a directing award.

Ahmed-Sheikh said Zulfikar took the archetypal formation disposable to North Macedonia aft proceeding of Salmond's death.

The adjacent narration betwixt the families grew from rocky beginnings arsenic governmental rivals.

In 1999, erstwhile Ahmed-Sheikh was lasting for the Scottish Conservatives successful the Scottish Parliamentary election, she took purpose astatine Salmond's precise nationalist condemnation of the warfare successful Kosovo.

She called him “hopelessly naïve” and said helium had shown “shallow knowing of a large swathe of Scotland's population”.

Soon after, the predetermination results saw her polling importantly down the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon and Labour campaigner Gordon Jackson – who aboriginal went connected to correspond Alex Salmond against allegations of intersexual misconduct.

Ahmed-Sheikh past resigned from the Tories implicit their policies connected asylum seekers. She said the enactment was “completely retired of touch”.

After joining the SNP, and quality emerged astir erstwhile clip she had spent with Scottish Labour, she responded: “I americium not an opportunist, I privation to enactment with whoever volition present for Scotland.”

In a amusement of enactment for his caller colleague, Salmond said his governmental opponents’ absorption connected her past enactment rank was “stuff and nonsense”.

The 2 families proceed to enactment each different arsenic arrangements are made for Salmond's funeral.

"It’s precise hard for each of us," said Ahmed-Sheikh. "Everyone who was adjacent to Alex, knew Alex, worked with Alex due to the fact that helium was truthful overmuch of everything to us.

"From my position it was the politics, it was business... it was perfectly everything.

"My comfortableness has travel from my household and from Alex’s family, and arsenic a precise choky unit, we’re uncovering our mode to get done this – and that’s what we shall do."