Husband of ex-Scottish chief Nicola Sturgeon charged with embezzling celebration funds
The husband of former Scottish chief Nicola Sturgeon was charged on Thursday with embezzlement in an investigation into the funds of Scotland’s pro-independence governing celebration.
Police in Scotland mentioned a 59-year-old man was charged after being arrested and brought into custody earlier within the day. He was launched after being charged, the power mentioned. Whereas police didn’t title the suspect, the main points supplied matched up with Peter Murrell, the celebration’s former chief govt who was arrested simply over a yr in the past.
Scottish police have been investigating how £600,000 (US$750,000) earmarked for a Scottish independence marketing campaign had been spent. Murrell, Sturgeon and Colin Beattie, the Scottish Nationwide Occasion’s former treasurer, had been arrested and questioned final yr within the investigation however launched with out being charged with against the law.
Murrell’s first arrest got here quickly after Sturgeon’s beautiful announcement in February 2023 that she was resigning her submit after eight years as celebration chief and first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous authorities.
Murrell stepped down on March 18 amid controversy in regards to the celebration’s declining membership and a bitter combat to interchange Sturgeon. He held the place for greater than 20 years.
On the time of Murrell’s first arrest, police searched the couple’s Glasgow dwelling over two days.
Sturgeon mentioned after being launched from custody in June that her arrest had been “each a shock and deeply distressing”. She insisted she had performed nothing unsuitable.
“I do want to say this, and to take action within the strongest attainable phrases,” she mentioned in a press release on social media on the time. “Innocence isn’t just a presumption I’m entitled to in regulation. I do know past doubt that I’m in actual fact harmless of any wrongdoing.”
In saying her resignation, Sturgeon mentioned she knew “in my head and in my coronary heart” that it was the appropriate time for her, her celebration and her nation to make method for another person.
