A police probe has been launched after a death threat was sent to Alistair Carmichael, The Courier can reveal.
The menacing letter received the day after the former Scottish Secretary was cleared by a special election court was sent to the Liberal Democrat MP’s constituency office in Orkney.
The “abhorrent” threat is believed to relate to Mr Carmichael’s backing for air strikes in Syria and officers have deemed it serious enough to offer safety advice to the former Scottish Secretary.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “Officers in Kirkwall are making inquiries following correspondence received at the constituency office of Alistair Carmichael. Safety advice has been given.”
Police are understood to have ruled out any link to terrorism in connection with the letter. Mr Carmichael said he could not comment while the police investigation was ongoing.
A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said they hoped police would catch the person behind the letter, which was received by Mr Carmichael’s office on Thursday.
She said: “A threatening letter related to the recent vote on Syrian air strikes was sent to one of the constituency offices and was reported to police. These kind of comments are abhorrent and it’s only right that the police investigate who is behind them.”
Mr Carmichael has faced a public backlash after admitting responsibility for leaking a memo written by a civil servant which wrongly suggested First Minister Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to win in May.
Last week he was cleared in a special election court of deliberately misleading voters over the leak, although judges did conclude he had told a “blatant lie”.
It is understood that the death threat did not refer to the memo leak.
Mr Carmichael followed his leader Tim Farron in backing air strikes against so-called Islamic State militants in Syria.