2023-06-11 20:54:00
Former Scottish Prime Minister Sturgeon maintains her innocence in a party-funding investigation
Al Arabiya.net _ Agencies
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Former Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Sunday she was innocent of any wrongdoing following she was detained and questioned by police for more than seven hours as part of an investigation into the fate of funding for the pro-independence Scottish National Party.
Police are investigating the fate of more than 600,000 pounds ($754,140) in funding raised by Scottish independence activists in 2017 that was meant for this purpose but may have been used for other purposes.
Sturgeon’s arrest was a major embarrassment to the Scottish National Party, which has dominated Scottish politics for most of the past two decades. Sturgeon resigned earlier this year, and support for the party and its goal of independence has waned since then.
“To find myself in the situation I was in today, knowing that I have done nothing wrong, is shocking and very sad,” Sturgeon said in a statement on Twitter. “I know beyond any doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing.” .
Police released Sturgeon, 52, earlier in the day without charge.
“She has been released without charge pending further investigation,” Police Scotland said in a statement.
The SNP said it was cooperating in relation to the investigation and would continue to do so.
Last April, the police arrested Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Morell, and Colin Beatty, the party’s treasurer at the time, and then released them without charge pending further investigations in the same case.
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