Nicola Sturgeon’s solicitor defends ‘no comment’ police interview after arrest

Nicola Sturgeon’s lawyer has defended her answering “no comment” to detectives after she was arrested and questioned in relation to Police Scotland’s investigation into its probe of the SNP’s finances.  

Following a report by The Scottish Sun, which said the former first minister “sat in silence for hours” following her arrest on 11 June 2023, her solicitor Aamer Anwar said the response was “standard advice offered on a regular basis in our jurisdiction”.  

He also rejected claims that the response hindered the investigation.  

“In relation to the advice tendered to Ms Sturgeon to make no comment, this was by her solicitor, formerly a very senior Crown counsel at Crown Office,” Anwar said. 

He added it was “deeply worrying” that Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay described her “right to silence” as a “tactic of organised crime”.  

Anwar said that Sturgeon had later provided Police Scotland with a “detailed written response” to its questions.  

Operation Branchform resulted in the conviction of Sturgeon’s estranged husband and former chief executive of the party, Peter Murrell, for embezzlement.  

Sturgeon and SNP MSP and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were both questioned in relation to the investigation but were released without charge. In March last year, Police Scotland also confirmed it had dropped its investigation into both Beattie and Sturgeon.  

“The idea that a highly resourced inquiry was hampered by a no comment interview is nonsensical,” Anwar said. 

“Had there been any evidence whatsoever of criminality against Ms Sturgeon, there can be no doubt that this gold-plated investigation would have led to Ms Sturgeon being charged and prosecuted. 

“To make it abundantly clear it was not the role of the first minister to sign off accounts – that was for the party treasurer. 

“There appears to be an assumption that as FM, when Mr Murrell was busy buying multiple pens or pepper pots etc she was with him; Ms Sturgeon was not as unsurprisingly she was busy with other matters.” 

On Monday, Murrell admitted that he had embezzled over £400,000 from the party over 12 years during a hearing in Edinburgh. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced next month.