Respect for Alex Salmond “on an international stage” led to his stately repatriation after his death in North Macedonia last week, the Alba Party chairwoman has said.

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a close friend of the former first minister, draped a Saltire over his coffin before a military guard of honour carried his body to a private jet.

Salmond had been attending a conference – and Ahmed-Sheikh said he had spoken to many people who grew to admire him, which contributed to widespread shock over his fatal heart attack.

She said dignitaries including the Macedonian president had given a great deal of time to ensure Salmond was given a send-off that “he so rightly deserved”.

Speaking to the BBC, she said: “The shock was of course because Alex had passed, but also because people had got to know Alex over the preceding days, and love him and admire him.

“That is why people felt it all the more – it wasn’t just a person who had passed, it was a person who had touched them, who had listened to them, understood them and clearly cared about people and gave them time.”

Ahmed-Sheikh was with Salmond at the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy conference in the town of in Ohrid in North Macedonia.

His mood, she said, was one of excitement – about the future of Scotland and his party.

“He lit up every single room, every single speech he gave, every answer to every question he gave – people appreciated,” she said.

“Because he had a great way of not just delivering an answer, but with an explanation leading up to the answer so that people understood the thinking behind the man.”

The Alba leader was in the middle of lunch with other delegates when he suffered a heart attack and was given CPR.

Some of the details prior to this moment have been reported in the press – but Ahmed-Sheikh said she wished to give her account to Salmond’s family alone.

The return of his body to Scotland, on a private jet provided by businessman Sir Tom Hunter, was foremost in her mind.

She had a Saltire flag specially made to cover his coffin.

“The primary objective was to get Alex to Moira [his wife] and his family as quickly and respectfully as possible, but in a manner that he so deserved,” she said.

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

Despite starting out as political rivals, she and Salmond became firm comrades in politics, business and in life over the years.

After the 2014 independence referendum, Salmond resigned as first minister and turned his attention back to a career in Westminster.

As he bid for the Gordon seat in the 2015 UK Parliamentary election, Ahmed-Sheikh contested the Ochil and South Perthshire constituency and they frequently campaigned together.

Both were successful, with Ahmed-Sheikh becoming Scotland’s first female Muslim MP.

In 2021, she was unveiled as a Holyrood candidate for Salmond’s Alba Party – which had grown out of a dissatisfaction with the SNP’s efforts towards securing Scottish independence.

Ahmed-Sheikh also worked with Salmond on his personal projects – their co-owned production company Slainte Media produced The Alex Salmond Show, which was controversially shown on Russian state broadcaster RT until 2022.

Last year, Salmond and his wife Moira travelled to London to support Ahmed-Sheikh’s filmmaker husband, Zulfikar Sheikh, when he received a directing award.

Ahmed-Sheikh said Zulfikar took the first flight available to North Macedonia after hearing of Salmond’s death.

The close relationship between the families grew from rocky beginnings as political rivals.

In 1999, when Ahmed-Sheikh was standing for the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliamentary election, she took aim at Salmond’s very public condemnation of the war in Kosovo.

She called him “hopelessly naïve” and said he had shown “shallow understanding of a great swathe of Scotland’s population”.

Soon after, the election results saw her polling significantly behind the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon and Labour candidate Gordon Jackson – who later went on to represent Alex Salmond against allegations of sexual misconduct.

Ahmed-Sheikh then resigned from the Tories over their policies on asylum seekers. She said the party was “completely out of touch”.

After joining the SNP, and news emerged about previous time she had spent with Scottish Labour, she responded: “I am not an opportunist, I want to work with whoever will deliver for Scotland.”

In a show of support for his new colleague, Salmond said his political opponents’ focus on her past party membership was “stuff and nonsense”.

The two families continue to support each other as arrangements are made for Salmond’s funeral.

“It’s very difficult for all of us,” said Ahmed-Sheikh. “Everyone who was close to Alex, knew Alex, worked with Alex because he was so much of everything to us.

“From my perspective it was the politics, it was business… it was absolutely everything.

“My comfort has come from my family and from Alex’s family, and as a very tight unit, we’re finding our way to get through this – and that’s what we shall do.”

Alex Salmond:The Man Who Changed Scotland will be on BBC One Scotland at 19:00 on Wednesday 30 October and on iPlayer.