Nicola Sturgeon refuses to publish statement she provided to police after arrest
Opposition politicians had urged her to release the document
Nicola Sturgeon has been criticised after refusing to publish the written statement she provided to police after she was arrested and interviewed under caution in relation to her estranged husband Peter Murrell’s embezzlement.
The former first minister’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said his client had been “exonerated” and there was “no onus on her to now prove her innocence in the court of media opinion”.
Ms Sturgeon previously revealed she had sent detectives and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) a written document in 2023 “answering the questions that had been put to me”.
In May, she indicated she would be happy to publish this, but appears to have changed her mind.
“Ms Sturgeon’s detailed statement produced for Police Scotland was to assist them with their inquiries; not for those who think they could now do a better job than the robust ‘gold-plated’ financial crime investigation,” Mr Anwar said.
“Ms Sturgeon is innocent, as evidenced by the fact that she was not charged, prosecuted nor convicted of any crime. Having been exonerated through the proper process, there is no onus on her to now prove her innocence in the court of media opinion.
“Neither Ms Sturgeon’s written statement [n]or her police interview will be released.”
Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: “This blows apart any pretence that Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to be transparent about this SNP scandal.
“There is nothing stopping her from releasing the statement she gave to the police, yet she has decided she prefers hiding behind statements from her lawyer.
“Sturgeon promised to co-operate fully with police yet sat for hours saying nothing while officers were questioning her. The police also made it clear that her written statement left many questions unanswered.
“This decision to keep the public in the dark will only fuel suspicion about what Sturgeon is hiding about what she knew and when about her crooked husband.
“Those are the questions that deserve to be answered during a robust independent inquiry.”
Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP, was jailed for more than five years last month for embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.
It previously emerged the team behind Operation Branchform - the name given to the police probe into the SNP’s finances - had further questions for Ms Sturgeon even after she was interviewed by police under caution and had submitted her written statement.
The former first minister was arrested in June 2023 as part of the high-profile investigation and provided ‘no comment’ answers during her interview under caution at Falkirk police station, which her solicitor, Mr Anwar, subsequently described as standard practice.
Ms Sturgeon then provided both Police Scotland and the COPFS with what she said was a “very detailed written document answering the questions that had been put to me”.
The Scotsman understands that although this statement answered some of the questions investigators had, there were further questions police would have liked to have asked Ms Sturgeon.
However, officers did not pursue additional questioning.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in May, Ms Sturgeon was asked if she would publish the written statement she provided to the police and prosecutors.
She said: “I’d take legal advice on that, because it was a document that was passed to the Crown Office and to the police, but I can’t think of anything in it that I wouldn’t want [published].”
It is understood that neither police nor prosecutors would have any issue with Ms Sturgeon publishing the statement.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.