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Alex Salmond's legal challenge against the Scottish government's handling of sexual misconduct complaints against him will be heard in the new year.

Civil servants investigated two allegations of sexual harassment against the former first minister, which he strenuously denies.

He also claimed the way the government handled the complaints was unfair to him, and launched a judicial review.

A four-day hearing will be held at the Court of Session from 15 January 2019.

A separate police investigation into the allegations is ongoing and will not be affected by the judicial review, which focuses entirely on the government's processes.

The government said the complaints against Mr Salmond "could not be ignored or swept under the carpet", and said it would "vigorously defend" its position.

Two complaints were made to the government in January, shortly after it had set up a new process for handling allegations of sexual harassment.

The complaints relate to alleged events in 2013, when Mr Salmond was first minister.

He said the subsequent investigation by the government was "unfair and unjust", and quit the SNP while launching a crowdfunder to help pay for a judicial review of the process.

The former MP and MSP said he had been given no opportunity to "see and therefore to properly challenge" the case against him and that he had "not been allowed to see the evidence".

He also described the allegations as "patently ridiculous" and claimed that someone within the government "flagrantly and repeatedly" breached the confidential complaints process by leaking details to the Daily Record newspaper.

The government replied that it was "confident our processes are legally sound", adding that there were "a number of inaccuracies in Mr Salmond's public statements" which would be addressed in court.

It also said the investigation had been "entirely confidential", and said it would "vigorously" defend the new processes.

A procedural hearing will be held in Edinburgh on 6 November, before the substantive arguments are made across four days in January.