Nicola Sturgeon returned home for the first time in a week today following her arrest and release as part of the police probe into SNP finances. The former First Minister arrived at her house in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, this afternoon after being arrested last Sunday.
Sturgeon, 52, was believed to have been arrested at Falkirk police station shortly after 10am on Sunday, June 11. She was questioned by detectives for seven hours before she was released without charge at around 5.25pm.
However, the ex-SNP leader had not been seen on her quiet suburban street since then until her return today. She made a statement on her arrival insisting she had done nothing wrong.
She told reporters: "I can't say very much just now, what I will say is I reiterate the statement I issued last Sunday, I am certain that I have done nothing wrong.
"I intend to be back in parliament in the early part of the week and I will make myself available for questions then, obviously within the constraints that I am referring to right now.
"For now, I intend to go home and catch up with some family. I know I am a public figure, I accept what comes with that but I am also a human being that is entitled to a bit of privacy and my neighbours are also entitled to a bit of privacy." She added: "I have done nothing wrong and that is the only thing I am going to assert today."
Sturgeon arrived at home in a black Volvo V60 R without husband Peter Murrell. She was escorted out of the vehicle by a member of her security team before she made a statement in her driveway.
She was arrested as part of an investigation into £600,000 of missing money which was raised by the SNP for a second independence referendum.
Humza Yousaf has so far rejected calls to suspend Sturgeon from the SNP or ask her to take a step back because of Operation Branchform.
But he is under increasing pressure following revelations in today's Sunday Mail that MP Michelle Thomson was bullied, threatened and forced out of the SNP on the orders of his predecessor.
Then-Edinburgh West MP Thomson was never a suspect, arrested or charged with any offence and not even spoken to police when SNP HQ used strongarm tactics to kick her out the party.
Sturgeon and former SNP chief Murrell demanded she resign and threatened her career if she refused to make it look like her own decision.
Sturgeon was the third senior SNP figure to be arrested as part of the investigation into the party's finances. Murrell and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were both arrested and released pending further enquiries on separate days in April.
On the day Murrell was arrested, his and Sturgeon's house was raided and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh were searched. A tent was erected in the couple's front garden.
A luxury campervan was also seized from Murrell's mother's house on the same day. The Sunday Mail reported that the £110,000 vehicle was paid for in cash.
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