Nicola Sturgeon interviewed Ian Dale at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Photo: Rich Dyson/Alamy
Nicola Sturgeon reveals she fled to her parents' home after police ransacked her home as part of an SNP financial investigation.
The former First Minister said she was looking for solace with «mom and dad» when detectives were interrogating her husband, Peter Murrell.
In her first in-depth interview since she was called in for questioning as a suspect in a criminal investigation in June, she also sidestepped a question about the implications of her marriage investigation, saying «nobody should be worried about that.»
Mr. Murrell, a former executive director of the SNP, was arrested and interrogated in April, and the house he shares with Ms. Sturgeon was searched by police for two days.
She repeated her statement that she had no idea what was about to happen when she announced her resignation as First Minister. She first became aware of the raid when she «knocked on the door» on the morning of April 5, she said.
«Not the best day of my life»
Asked by broadcaster Ian Dale at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe about the impact of her 13-year marriage, Ms Sturgeon replied: «My marriage is not something to worry about.»
Mr Murrell did not address arrested in public, although this week he was photographed with Ms Sturgeon on a shopping trip in Edinburgh.
When asked what was going on in her head while her husband was at the police station, she said she did not can remember.< /p>
“I have no idea, I was with my mom and dad,” she said.
“Always come back to Mom and Dad. I can't even remember everything going through my head, it wasn't the best day of my life, let's just say.”
Colin Beatty, former SNP treasurer, was also arrested. within the scope of the investigation. All three have been released without charge.
While some of her supporters have criticized the police for setting up a forensic science-style tent in her front garden, Ms Sturgeon suggested she has confidence in the investigation and actions of the Scottish police.< /p >
While the police were investigating, a tent was set up outside Nicola Sturgeon's house. , a traumatic experience,” she said.
“People live worse. The touchstone in all this has always been confidence in one's own position. I am absolutely sure that I did not do anything wrong.
“Therefore, I need and need to trust the process. The police are doing their job and therefore I have to trust that everything they do and the whole process is justified.
“I will continue to believe in it. The touchstone is confidence in my own position.”
“Knock on the door”
Opponents question whether the expansion of the police investigation was the real reason Ms. Sturgeon announced her unexpected resignation in February. The search began a few days after she officially quit.
She again denied the allegations, insisting she «couldn't have functioned» in her final weeks in office if she had known what was about to happen.
She declined to say when she first learned about the Luxurious Home on wheels, owned by SNP, seized by the police in her mother-in-law's driveway, claiming that the matter «touched the heart» of the police investigation.
This meant that she «was not going to deal with it» — she addressed the supportive crowd in the Scottish capital.
She said the first thing she realized about the raid on her house on the outskirts of Glasgow was «when it happened.»
When Mr. Dale asked if that meant «a literal knock on the door,» Ms. Sturgeon said, «Yes, but I'm not going to go into that. Maybe one day I can do it, but that day is not now.”
Asked if she was sure her husband had done nothing wrong, Ms Sturgeon replied that she was not ready to speak for him and that nothing should be read in her answer.
“Refusing to answer this question does not mean that you can say yes or no,” she said.
«I speak for myself, I will not speak for anyone else, be it my husband or anyone else.»
Police launched an investigation following complaints from independence supporters that some £600,000 in donations to referendum campaigns that never took place «disappeared» from the party's accounts.
Sir Ian Livingston, the outgoing Chief Constable of the Police for Scotland, recently suggested that the investigation has «gone beyond» the original allegations and is looking into «potential embezzlement».
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