NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday refused to say if her husband Peter Murrell is innocent – despite repeatedly claiming she personally has done nothing wrong.
As she returned to Holyrood for the first time following her shock arrest, the ex-First Minister insisted she was innocent.
But, when asked about Mr Murrell – the former SNP chief executive – Ms Sturgeon said: “I am only speaking for myself.”
Speaking to journalists in the Scottish Parliament, she also suggested that she would not quit the Nats as this could “compromise” her ability to protest her innocence.
Ms Sturgeon’s husband was arrested in April as part of the police probe into SNP finances with their Uddingston home raided by officers, and a luxury motorhome seized from outside her mother-in-law’s home.
Last week Ms Sturgeon was then hauled in by cops who questioned her for seven hours before releasing her without charge.
Returning to her home on Sunday, she told reporters that she was “certain” she was innocent of any wrongdoing.
And again asserted her innocence today, insisting: “I have done nothing wrong” – as she refused to reveal on what specific grounds she had been arrested.
But, when asked if she also believed her husband was innocent of any wrongdoing, Ms Sturgeon said: “In a situation like this I can only speak for myself and I am only speaking for myself.”
She claimed that as an “elected politician” she was different from her husband in that she was expected to speak to journalists and answer questions about the saga – while he is not.
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On her refusal to say whether Mr Murrell is innocent, Ms Sturgeon said this was not a “loaded statement” but that she could not speak for others.
The SNP has been engulfed in crisis since April when Mr Murrell was the first party official to be arrested, with ex-treasurer Colin Beattie also questioned under caution before the pair were released without charge.
Humza Yousaf has faced calls from within his own party to suspend Ms Sturgeon – but he has refused to do so.
The former SNP leader suggested that she would not step down as this could “compromise” her ability to continue asserting her innocence.
Asked if she would quit, Ms Sturgeon said that she searched her “soul on these questions on an ongoing basis” adding: “I have dedicated most of my life to the SNP and I don’t say that to make it sound like a sacrifice.
“But the interests of the SNP are as close to my heart as is possible for anything to be.”
And on resigning she said: “What that would do, I think, would be to compromise my ability and my right to assert the position that I hold absolutely that I have done nothing wrong.”
She also admitted that the current crisis had “not been the best period of my life” adding: “It’s not an easy period. I’m not saying that for sympathy…The thing that sustains me right now is the certainty that I have done nothing wrong.
“It is a belief and a certainty that I have.”
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The three arrests are part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform which was launched after concerns were raised about what had happened to nearly £500,000 the SNP raised for a referendum campaign in a 2017 online crowdfunder.
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