Humza Yousaf: Timing of SNP search warrant not unusual

Scotland's first minister has said there was nothing unusual in the timing of a warrant to search his predecessor's home.

It emerged on Tuesday that police asked for permission to search Nicola Sturgeon's house and the SNP HQ during the party's leadership contest.

The request was not granted by a sheriff until two weeks later - after the contest ended.

Humza Yousaf said the government would "never dream" of interfering.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the first minister was asked whether a two-week gap between a warrant being requested and granted was normal.

He replied: "I suppose that would be a question for the Crown, not questions for government or ministers or the first minister.

"I don't believe there will be any particular reason out of the ordinary that it would take that time."

Mr Yousaf added: "We would never dream of interfering, neither in a live police investigation, but certainly not in a search warrant.

"I'm the first minister. I don't sign off on search warrants, I don't get involved in operational decisions for Police Scotland."

The first minister also said he did not believe the Crown Office took decisions "based on election contests or politics".

15 February - Nicola Sturgeon announces she is to stand down as first minister and SNP leader

18 March - Ms Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell quits as SNP chief executive in a row over misleading party membership figures being given to the press

20 March - Police submit a draft warrant to the Crown Office seeking permission to search Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell's home and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh

27 March - Mr Yousaf narrowly defeats Kate Forbes in the SNP leadership contest

3 April - The finalised search warrant is sent to a sheriff and is granted

5 April - Police raid the home of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell and the party HQ and remove several boxes of evidence. Mr Murrell is arrested and later released without charge.

See a full timeline of the two-year police investigation here.

Sources close to the inquiry have denied that there was an undue delay in granting the warrant, which is reported to have included a long list of items the police wanted to seize as part of their ongoing investigation into the SNP's finances.

BBC Scotland understands that prosecutors discussed the draft search warrant with police officers after it was submitted, with a sheriff signing it off on the same day it was finalised.

Opposition parties have highlighted what they believe is a potential conflict of interest in the role of Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, who heads the Crown Office but is also a Scottish government minister and sits in its cabinet meetings.

Ms Bain did not respond when asked by Sky News on Tuesday whether the search warrant had been deliberately delayed until after Ms Sturgeon left office.

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said prosecutors always acted independently of political pressure or interference.

He also said any case involving a politician was carried out without the involvement of the Lord Advocate or her deputy the Solicitor General.

Details of the two-week gap between detectives submitting a request for a search warrant to the Crown Office and it being sent to a sheriff for approval were released by Police Scotland in response to a freedom of information request and first reported by the Scottish Sun.

It showed that the Crown Office was told on 20 March that Police Scotland wanted a search warrant.

It was not until 3 April - a week after Mr Yousaf, the SNP hierarchy's preferred candidate, narrowly won the SNP leadership contest - that the application for a warrant was approved by a sheriff.

Officers searched the Glasgow home of Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell two days later.

Mr Murrell, who had recently quit as the SNP's chief executive, was arrested before later being released without charge while further investigations were carried out.

The SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh was also searched on 5 April and a luxury motorhome that sells for about £110,000 was seized from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.

Colin Beattie, who was the party's treasurer at the time, was arrested on 18 April before also being released without charge while further inquiries were carried out. He subsequently quit as treasurer.

Alba MP Kenny MacAskill, who served as justice secretary in the SNP government led by Alex Salmond, called for a judge-led inquiry into the Crown Office's role in the granting of the warrant to search Ms Sturgeon's house and the SNP HQ.

He said an inquiry would "reassure the public that the decisions taken by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service have not been influenced by political considerations".

Scottish Conservative MSP Russell Findlay told BBC Scotland that the case raised "fundamental questions" about the role of the Lord Advocate.

He said it was "not appropriate" for the head of the prosecution service to also be a government minister, and that the roles needed to be separated.

Police launched their Operation Branchform investigation almost two years ago after receiving complaints about how a total of £666,953 donated to the SNP by activists was used.

The party pledged to spend the funds on a future independence referendum. Questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.

Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.

The party had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year. It still owes money to its former chief executive, but has not said how much.