Nicola Sturgeon: I’m sure I didn’t do anything wrong

Nicola Sturgeon said she was sure she had done nothing wrong after returning home for the first time since her arrest last Sunday.

The former first minister of Scotland told reporters that she intends to return to parliament this week.

Sturgeon was questioned for more than seven hours as part of a police investigation into the SNP’s finances.

She temporarily moved out of her home in Glasgow after being released without charge.

The former first minister said: “For now, I intend to go home and catch up with the family.

“I know I’m a public person – I accept whatever comes with that. But I’m also a human being who is entitled to a measure of privacy.”

When asked if she’d considered retracting the SNP, Ms Sturgeon said: “I’ve done nothing wrong and that’s the only thing I’m going to confirm today.”

Police Scotland has over the past two years investigated what happened to more than £600,000 in donations made to the Scottish National Party by independence campaigners.

Officers searched Mrs Sturgeon’s home and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh on 5 April.

Her husband, former SNP CEO Peter Morrell, was arrested before he was later released without charge pending investigation.

Police seized a luxury home worth around 110,000 pounds from outside Muriel’s mother’s home in Dunfermline.

Almost two weeks later, SNP treasurer Colin Beatty was also arrested and released without charge while further investigations took place.

Beatty resigned as party treasurer shortly thereafter.

Dames Sturgeon, Muriel and Betty were the three signatories to the SNP accounts and the former First Minister’s arrest was widely expected – although there is no indication of when this might happen.

She announced on 15 February that she would step down as SNP leader and first minister once a successor was elected, with Hamza Yusuf winning the contest to replace her.

Ms Sturgeon said at the time that she knew “in my head and in my heart” it was the right time to go, and has since denied that the timing had been affected by an ongoing police investigation.

She was Scotland’s first longest-serving female minister, and the only woman to hold the office.