Nicola Sturgeon Cleared After Police Investigation Into SNP Finances

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister and once one of Britain’s most prominent politicians, is no longer being investigated over allegations of embezzlement at the Scottish National Party, which she led until two years ago.

The Scottish police, in a statement, lifted a cloud that had been hanging over Ms. Sturgeon since her arrest and questioning in June 2023 plunged her party into crisis.

Her arrest was part of an inquiry into financial irregularities at the S.N.P., which campaigns for Scottish independence and which has dominated the country’s politics for most of the past two decades.

The police investigation, code-named Operation Branchform, led to charges of embezzlement against Ms. Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, former chief executive of the S.N.P. Mr. Murrell appeared in court in Edinburgh on those charges on Thursday but did not enter a plea.

In January the couple said they had separated and were in the process of ending their marriage.

Police Scotland said in a statement on Thursday that both Ms. Sturgeon and Colin Beattie, a former treasurer of the S.N.P. who was also arrested in 2023, “have not been charged and are no longer under investigation.”

In line with standard British police protocol, neither Ms. Sturgeon nor Mr. Beattie were mentioned by name in the statement but were referred to as a 54-year-old woman and a 73-year old man. But speaking to reporters outside her home near Glasgow, Ms. Sturgeon said she had been told that, after an investigation of the evidence, there would be no action against her.