Former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon was arrested Sunday morning as police investigated her party’s possible misuse of supporters’ money.
Sturgeon, 52, was released after investigators questioned her for six hours, the Scottish police force said in a statement. Cops didn’t mention Sturgeon by name in the statement, but she confirmed the news in her own release.
Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party has been under investigation for years over a $750,000 donation from supporters of the party’s independence platform. That money was apparently squandered, and other party leaders — including Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell — have been questioned similarly.
So far, no one has been charged with a crime in the investigation. The arrest of Sturgeon had been long-anticipated, according to the BBC News, but she expressed shock in her statement.
“To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offense is both a shock and deeply distressing,” she wrote. “Innocence is not just a presumption I am entitled to in law. I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing.”
The SNP remains Scotland’s most popular party, but it has been roiled by turmoil in recent years. Sturgeon, who led the party for eight years, unexpectedly stepped down in February. She had also been leading Scotland’s semi-autonomous government as part of its uneasy partnership in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, Scotland held an independence referendum, but Scots voted narrowly to remain part of the centuries-old U.K. with England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The pro-independence SNP shook up its leadership after the vote, with Sturgeon taking charge. She pushed for a second referendum, though that has yet to take place.