Nicola Sturgeon was in custody for about 7 hours, Police Scotland said.
LONDON — Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was “innocent of any wrongdoing” after facing hours of questioning in police custody on Sunday.
Sturgeon, a staunch independence supporter who resigned earlier this year, was questioning for several hours on Sunday in connection with an ongoing probe into her party’s finances, Police Scotland said.
Police officers drive their car past the home of Peter Murrell, former chief executive of the Scottish National Party, and his wife, Scotland’s former First Minister and former leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, in Glasgow on June 11, 2023.
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“The woman is in custody and being questions by Police Scotland detectives,” the force said in a statement, which did not identify the former first minister by name. Sturgeon later identified herself as the person in custody, saying in a statement she was “in this situation.”
Sturgeon was released about 7 hours later “without charge pending further investigation,” police officials said in a follow-up statement.
Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, reacts as she delivers her speech to delegates at the annual SNP Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, on October 10, 2022.
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The former first minister was the latest official to be questioned in the ongoing probe into the Scottish National Party’s funding and finances.
Two other former or current SNP officials have been arrested, including Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, who served as the party’s chief executive from 2000 to 2023. Murrell was arrested in April, police said at the time. Colin Beattie, the party’s ex-treasurer, was also arrested, PA Media reported.
Sturgeon, who is currently minister for Glasgow Southside, said< /a>on Sunday that finding herself “in this situation” was a “shock” when she was “certain I have committed no offence.”
“I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing,” she wrote in a statement.
Source: abc news
