Former Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been released without charge hours after being held for questioning as part of an investigation into the finances of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
It concerns a police investigation launched in 2021 that focuses on donations to campaigns for independence, worth more than 600 thousand pounds (almost 700 thousand euros), which will not have been reported on the SNP accounts. According to a police statement, Sturgeon was detained for approximately seven hours and the case is now “pending further investigation”. In a note issued by Sturgeon in the late afternoon, the The former prime minister said her arrest was “a shock and deeply distressing”. “I know beyond any doubt that I am innocent,” added.
The announcement of the arrest was made by the Scottish National Police on the social network Twitter, pointing to a 52-year-old woman in an arrest in connection with ongoing investigations into the SNP’s “funding and finances”, without disclosing her identity. to give. . Shortly afterwards, the British media reported that it was Nicola Sturgeon, which was confirmed by a spokesman for the former prime minister who, quoted by the daily The protectorstated that “Nicola has always said she would cooperate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so”.
Operation Branchform has already led to other arrests, including the husband of Sturgeon, who was the executive director of the SNP. Peter Murrell was arrested in April and later released without charge., as is party treasurer Colin Beattie. Police then searched SNP headquarters, the home of the former Prime Minister and Murrel, as well as Holyrood, the home of the Autonomous Parliament of Scotland. The inquiry stemmed from complaints about donations to the Scottish National Party, as part of fundraising campaigns for a second independence referendum, being diverted to other causes. Nicola Sturgeon has always denied any knowledge of alleged irregularities in party accounts and when her husband was arrested in April, he rejected any causal link with his departure from the government leadership.
Scotland’s Conservative Party chairman Craig Hoy has already appealed against Sturgeon’s suspension as an MP, a demand echoed by the SNP MP for Westminster, Angus MacNeil. “This soap opera has gone too far, Nicola Sturgeon has suspended others from the SNP for much less. It is time for political distancing until the investigation is complete,” he wrote on Twitter.
a surprising exit
To everyone’s surprise, Nicola Sturgeon, who led Scotland for eight years, announced his resignation last February and remained in office until the election of his successor, which was due to take place at the end of March, with the election of Humza Yousaf, then health minister. When announcing his departure, Sturgeon referred to the position as the “best job in the world” but defended that you need to know “when the time is right to clear the way for someone else”. “In my head and in my heart I know that the time has come, that it is the right time for me, for my party and for the country,” the Executive leader said visibly moved at a press conference. Sturgeon’s departure was therefore seen as a setback in the cause of Scottish independence, of which she had always been a prominent supporter.
After Nicola Sturgeon took over the leadership of the Scottish Government in November 2014, she successively renewed her mandate, becoming the longest-serving Prime Minister. She has held key executive positions since 2007, making her debut as Minister for Health and Welfare, moving to Infrastructure, Investment and Cities in 2012, where she also took on the role of Deputy Prime Minister of Scotland . He would succeed Alex Salmond in 2014, when he stepped down after losing the independence referendum.
Since then, Sturgeon has defended the need for a new referendum, a position strengthened by the results of the 2016 Brexit referendum, when Scotland voted by a majority to remain in the European Union (62%), but the option to leave won overall from the United Kingdom, with 52% of the vote. Last year, the then prime minister announced the plan to hold a new consultation this year.. But the central government has refused to give permission and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that Scotland cannot proceed with an independence referendum without London’s consent.
Source: DN
