Nicola Sturgeon said “I have done nothing wrong” as she returned home for the first time following her arrest last Sunday.
She was questioned by police investigating the SNP’s finances for seven hours and was released without charge on June 11 pending further investigation.
Returning to her Glasgow home this Sunday, she said: “I can’t say very much just now, what I will say is reiterate the statement I issued last Sunday, I’m certain that I have done nothing wrong.
“I intend to be back in Parliament in the early part of the week, I’ll make myself available for questions then.
“For now I intend to go home and catch up with some family.”
Asked whether she had considered stepping back from the SNP, she said: “I’ve done nothing wrong and that is the only thing I’m going to assert today.”
When asked whether Nicola Sturgeon would have suspended Nicola Sturgeon, she said: “Look I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s for others to comment as they see fit but that’s my position.”
The investigation – dubbed Operation Branchform – began in 2021 after allegations that £600,000 raised for a potential independence referendum campaign had been diverted elsewhere.
It later emerged former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell – Ms Sturgeon’s husband – had lent the party £100,000 in June 2021 to help with a “cash flow” problem.
The former first minister’s husband, was arrested in April. Mr Murrell and MSP Colin Beattie, who was SNP treasurer at the time, were both released without charge pending further inquiries.
As well as the arrests, searches were carried out at a number of properties, including Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon’s home – where a police tent was erected in the garden – and SNP headquarters in Edinburgh.
A luxury motorhome was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s mother in Dunfermline.
