Humza Yousaf has hailed Nicola Sturgeon as the "the most impressive politician in Europe" despite her arrest last weekend.
The First Minister today defended his decision not to suspend his predecessor from the SNP after she was questioned by detectives for several hours in connection to Operation Branchform.
Sturgeon was released without charge on Sunday pending further investigation.
Some in the SNP - including two MSPs - have questioned why she did not lose the party whip until the police investigation is concluded.
It comes as Keith Brown, the SNP depute leader, announced the party had decided to send flowers to Sturgeon following her arrest.
Yousaf spoke with journalists at the Scottish Parliament today and insisted he had made the correct decision.
And he claimed the former first minister remained an asset to the SNP.
He said: "I have shown consistency throughout this process. If people are released without charge there’s no reason to suspend them. I've made that clear.
"It’s the way I’ve treated other parliamentarians, for example, and that’s the way I’ll continue.
"I know why the opposition want Nicola Sturgeon out of here because she’s of course thrashed them in every single election. So I’m hardly surprised at that."
Asked if Sturgeon remained an asset to the SNP, he said: “Nicola Sturgeon is the most impressive politician I think we've seen in Europe.
“She's an asset to our movement and to our party.”
He added: “It’s obviously a difficult time. It's a very, very difficult time for her, a difficult time for our party and personally painful to many of us too.”
Asked if he had spoken to Sturgeon since Sunday’s events, he said: “No.”
Asked if he was not suspending her because the was “weak”, Yousaf said: “That question’s already been asked, and that answer to that is No.
“The reason I’m doing it is because I believe in natural justice, I believe in due process. She was released without charge.”
Asked why Derek Mackay was ousted in 2020 after pestering a teenage boy with text messages while finance secretary, Yousaf said: “I don’t account for what happened in the past.
"Of course, Derek Mackay admitted to something that was inappropriate.”
Sturgeon's arrest came as part of an on-going police investigation into how the SNP spent donations raised for a second independence referendum campaign.
Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, was questioned by detectives in April but not charged.
Colin Beattie, the former SNP treasurer and a serving MSP, was also questioned but not charged that same month.
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