Alex Salmond’s body is set to be flown home by a plane chartered by the Scottish Government following days of diplomatic wrangling.
The former first minister was attending a conference in North Macedonia last week when he suffered a fatal heart attack.
Friends and political allies of Salmond have called for the RAF to fly his body home to the north-east of Scotland, but the Record understands this was rejected as he was a private citizen at the time of his death.
Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, has since been working with Scottish Government officials and the UK Foreign Office to find a resolution.
Holyrood has reportedly now agreed to charter a plane, with final logistics being worked out by civil servants.
Salmond’s family are understood to be planning a private funeral for the former SNP leader, with a larger public memorial service to take place later in the year.
The veteran campaigner for Scottish independence had travelled to North Macedonia last week with his Alba Party colleague Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.
Salmond spoke at a panel discussion on Saturday morning, offering his reflections on the 2014 referendum on independence, before falling ill while attending a lunch later that day.
Mark Donfried, director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, which helped organise the event, later described the political veteran’s final moments.
He said: “He was really in the best of spirits, the best of health. I was sitting across from him at lunch yesterday when all of a sudden he just went and fell into the arms of a colleague of mine on the other side of the table.
“I immediately got up and ran to call an ambulance and when I came back, he was on the floor.
“We’re all completely shocked – the entire hotel, the conference, it’s been very difficult for all of us. He was a great man who we all looked up to and so we’re still all in a state of shock.
“We had a brief moment of reflection on his legacy. There was a humility with Alex, he had an authenticity, it was amazing to see how he’d touched individuals he had only known for a few days.”
Speaking just hours before his death, Salmond told delegates: “I think the worst excess of the entire referendum campaign of 10 years ago was that someone got an egg thrown at them, which is hardly in the great excesses of politics.”
He added: “My general message is respect for legitimate democratic aspirations leads to good outcomes. Disrespecting it, in one way or another… can lead to bad outcomes for everyone.”
Salmond resigned his SNP membership in 2018 after he faced historic allegations of sexual harassment dating from his time as first minister, which he denied.
He later launched the breakaway Alba Party ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.
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