diff --git a/dorado/alignment/Minimap2Aligner.cpp b/dorado/alignment/Minimap2Aligner.cpp
index 9b5be64f..5aa57065 100644
--- a/dorado/alignment/Minimap2Aligner.cpp
+++ b/dorado/alignment/Minimap2Aligner.cpp
@@ -18,9 +18,7 @@ void add_sa_tag(bam1_t* record,
                 int32_t hits,
                 int32_t aln_idx,
                 int32_t l_seq,
-                const mm_idx_t* idx,
-                const bool use_hard_clip) {
-    const auto clip_char = use_hard_clip ? "H" : "S";
+                const mm_idx_t* idx) {
     std::stringstream ss;
     for (int i = 0; i < hits; i++) {
         if (i == aln_idx) {
@@ -50,7 +48,7 @@ void add_sa_tag(bam1_t* record,
         ss << r->rs + 1 << ",";
         ss << "+-"[r->rev] << ",";
         if (clip5) {
-            ss << clip5 << clip_char;
+            ss << clip5 << "S";
         }
         if (num_matches) {
             ss << num_matches << "M";
@@ -62,7 +60,7 @@ void add_sa_tag(bam1_t* record,
             ss << num_deletes << "D";
         }
         if (clip3) {
-            ss << clip3 << clip_char;
+            ss << clip3 << "S";
         }
         ss << "," << r->mapq << "," << (r->blen - r->mlen + r->p->n_ambi) << ";";
     }
@@ -223,7 +221,12 @@ std::vector<BamPtr> Minimap2Aligner::align(bam1_t* irecord, mm_tbuf_t* buf) {
 
         // Add new tags to match minimap2.
         add_tags(record, aln, seq, buf);
-        add_sa_tag(record, reg, hits, j, static_cast<int>(l_seq), mm_index, use_hard_clip);
+        if (!skip_seq_qual) {
+            // Here pass the original query length before any hard clip because the
+            // the CIGAR string in SA tag only makes use of soft clip. And for that to be
+            // correct the unclipped query length is needed.
+            add_sa_tag(record, reg, hits, j, static_cast<int>(seq.size()), mm_index);
+        }
 
         // Remove MM/ML/MN tags if secondary alignment and soft clipping is not enabled.
         if ((flag & (BAM_FSUPPLEMENTARY | BAM_FSECONDARY)) && !(mm_map_opts.flag & MM_F_SOFTCLIP)) {
diff --git a/tests/AlignerTest.cpp b/tests/AlignerTest.cpp
index 79a6ab76..c0316a36 100644
--- a/tests/AlignerTest.cpp
+++ b/tests/AlignerTest.cpp
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 #define TEST_GROUP "[bam_utils][aligner]"
 
+using Catch::Matchers::Equals;
 namespace fs = std::filesystem;
 
 namespace {
@@ -531,4 +532,36 @@ TEST_CASE_METHOD(AlignerNodeTestFixture,
 
         CHECK(read_common_value == bam_value);
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+TEST_CASE_METHOD(AlignerNodeTestFixture,
+                 "AlignerTest: Check SA tag in non-primary alignments has correct CIGAR string",
+                 TEST_GROUP) {
+    using Catch::Matchers::Contains;
+
+    fs::path aligner_test_dir = fs::path(get_aligner_data_dir());
+    auto ref = aligner_test_dir / "supplementary_basecall_target.fa";
+    auto query = aligner_test_dir / "basecall_target.fa";
+
+    auto options = dorado::alignment::dflt_options;
+    options.kmer_size = options.window_size = 15;
+    options.index_batch_size = 1'000'000'000ull;
+    options.soft_clipping = GENERATE(true, false);
+    dorado::HtsReader reader(query.string(), std::nullopt);
+    auto bam_records = RunPipelineWithBamMessages(reader, ref.string(), options, 1);
+    REQUIRE(bam_records.size() == 3);
+
+    bam1_t* primary_rec = bam_records[0].get();
+    bam1_t* secondary_rec = bam_records[1].get();
+    bam1_t* supplementary_rec = bam_records[2].get();
+
+    // Check aux tags.
+    CHECK_THAT(bam_aux2Z(bam_aux_get(primary_rec, "SA")), Equals("read2,1,+,999S899M,60,0;"));
+    if (options.soft_clipping) {
+        CHECK_THAT(bam_aux2Z(bam_aux_get(secondary_rec, "SA")),
+                   Equals("read3,1,+,999M899S,0,0;read2,1,+,999S899M,60,0;"));
+    } else {
+        CHECK(bam_aux_get(secondary_rec, "SA") == nullptr);
+    }
+    CHECK_THAT(bam_aux2Z(bam_aux_get(supplementary_rec, "SA")), Equals("read3,1,+,999M899S,0,0;"));
+}