Dundee-based Courier newspaper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI hope he ends up with quite a hefty sentence, quite frankly, because he deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murrell had by then been chief executive of the SNP for 22 years, and with his marriage to Sturgeon, was one of the most powerful people in British politics.<\/p>\n
Murrell\u2019s arrest was quickly followed by Sturgeon\u2019s arrest too as a suspect and of the then SNP treasurer, Colin Beattie. Both were subsequently cleared by police.<\/p>\n
The scandal \u201ccast a massive shadow\u201d over Yousaf\u2019s term in office, he told the Courier. \u201cIt was difficult to get out of. All that hangs over you.\u201d Murrell \u201chideously betrayed\u201d the trust of his allies and colleagues, he said.<\/p>\n
Yousaf, who was the first Asian and first Muslim to serve as first minister, said he was \u201cflabbergasted\u201d when detectives subsequently seized a \u00a3124,000 motorhome from the drive way of Murrell\u2019s mother in Dunfermline.<\/p>\n
But it was Murrell\u2019s prolific spending on luxury but also prosaic items such as the Lalique Feuilles salt and pepper grinders, which cost \u00a32,618, that Yousaf said particularly shocked him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe motorhome people focus on, I understand that. It was the things like \u00a32,000 on a salt and pepper shaker. I didn\u2019t even know people made salt and peppers shakers that cost that sort of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yousaf\u2019s remarks contrast with the far more cautious stance being taken by John Swinney, the current first minister, who has refused to comment directly on Murrell\u2019s fate until the court proceedings end.<\/p>\n
Although Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling \u00a3400,310 on Monday, Swinney argues that the case is still live because he has not yet been sentenced. Murrell is due to appear in court again on 2 June where the prosecution is expected to provide greater detail about his crimes, and is due to be sentenced on 23 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Humza Yousaf, Scotland\u2019s former first minister, has called for Peter Murrell to get a \u201chefty\u201d jail sentence after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}