Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested on Sunday as part of a financial investigation regarding how more than $745,000 in campaign funds were spent by the nation’s governing party.
Scotland police said Sturgeon, 52, who dominated the nation’s pro-independence party for eight years, had been taken into custody “as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party.”
It’s the latest development in Operation Branchform, Police Scotland’s probe into allegations that the SNP misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations.
A spokesperson for Sturgeon said she had been aware she would be arrested on Sunday and was cooperating with police.
Sturgeon’s arrest came two months after police arrested her husband, Peter Murrel, the party’s former chief executive, as well as SNP treasurer, Colin Beattie, as part of the investigation. Neither were charged with a crime.
The former Scottish leader made headlines as the first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government.
It came during a period of division in the SNP after repeated failures to meet the party’s main goal, independence from the United Kingdom.
Back in 2014, when Sturgeon and her party first came to power, Scottish voters chose to remain in the UK.
Despite the party’s call for a new vote, the nation’s Supreme Court ruled that Scotland could not hold a referendum without London’s approval, which was not given since.
The SNP did not immediately comment on Sturgeon’s arrest.
Angus MacNeil, the SNP Western Isles Member of Parliament, has joined others in calling on the party to suspend Sturgeon.
“This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less!,” he tweeted following news of her arrest. “Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way.”
With Post wires
