EDINBURGH: The ex-partner of Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday pleaded guilty to embezzling more than 400,000 ($540,000) from the pro-independence Scottish National Party in a years-long probe into the party’s finances.

Sturgeon, the former head of Scotland’s devolved administration in Edinburgh, quit as SNP leader and first minister in February 2023. Her then-husband Peter Murrell was arrested in April that year after officers searched the home he shared with Sturgeon near Glasgow, as part of an investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Murrell, 61, who was the SNP’s chief executive from 2001 to 2023, was remanded in custody by a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh before a sentencing hearing scheduled for June 23.

Judge James Young said Murrell was responsible for a “gross breach of trust” for embezzling offences between August 2010 and October 2022.

A once-prominent figure in the SNP, Murrell’s arrest had sent shockwaves through Scotland’s ruling party, subject of the lengthy investigation over the diversion of 600,000 in SNP donations that were meant to support its independence campaign. Sturgeon was herself arrested in June 2023 over claims of mismanagement of SNP finances and questioned for seven hours before being released without charge.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026