The former Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted this Sunday that she has not committed any crime, after seven hours of police detention in Glasgow (United Kingdom), in the framework of an investigation into the finances of her political party, the SNP.
“To find myself in the situation I found myself in today, despite being convinced that I have not committed any crime, is a shock and very distressing,” she said in a statement after her arrest.
“Obviously, given the nature of this process, I cannot go into details,” he said in a statement on social media.
In her statement, Nicola Sturgeon added: “However, I would like to say this, and to say it in the strongest terms possible. Innocence is not just a presumption to which I am entitled by law. In fact, I am innocent of any wrongdoing. “.
The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) stated that it has been “fully cooperating with this investigation and will continue to do so. However, it is inappropriate to publicly address any issues while the investigation is ongoing.”
Scottish police said in a statement that the 52-year-old woman, arrested in the morning, was in custody between 10:09 a.m. and 5:24 p.m. local time (the same time in Lisbon).
UK police do not identify suspects until they are charged.
The information that it was Sturgeon was made by the BBC and other British media.
The authorities are trying to clarify the destination of the 600,000 pounds (700,000 euros) that the SNP raised to finance a new referendum on independence, a case for which Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, was also arrested and released in April.
Nicola Sturgeon headed the Scottish Government and led the SNP between 2014 and February 2023, when she surprisingly announced her resignation from both positions, giving way to a change in the party, whose leadership Humza Yousaf took over at the end of March.
Weeks after her resignation, her husband Peter Murrell, the SNP’s chief executive for nearly 20 years, and former treasurer Colin Beattie, who resigned after his release, were arrested.
The chairman of the Conservative Party in Scotland, Craig Hoy, has called for Sturgeon’s suspension as an MP following her arrest, a call joined by the nationalist SNP MP for Westminster, Angus MacNeil.
Sturgeon was released without charge after more than seven hours of interrogation, although the case, open since 2021, is still “pending new investigations”, as reported by the Police, who will now send a report to the Public Ministry.
The first woman to lead the Scottish government, Sturgeon led her party to the dominance of Scottish politics and transformed the SNP into a dominant government force with liberal social views.
He led his party through three UK elections and two Scottish elections, and guided Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic, winning praise for his clear and measured communication style.
But Sturgeon left amid divisions in the SNP and with his main goal, independence from Britain for the nation of 5.5 million people, undelivered.
Source: TSF
