Peter Murrell’s legal aid withdrawn by funding body

Peter Murrell’s legal aid has been withdrawn after he was jailed for embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP, it has been confirmed.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) said the party’s former chief executive, who is Nicola Sturgeon’s former husband, is no longer receiving their assistance.

The Scotsman, which reported the development, said legal aid was terminated on July 28 after the SLAB was in contact with Murrell’s lawyers about his circumstances.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing is due to take place on December 7.

This will determine the confiscation of funds which he embezzled from the SNP over a 12-year period while he was its chief executive.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Legal Aid Board told Press Association: “Legal aid and data protection legislation strictly limits what SLAB can disclose about individual applications.

“We can confirm the individual is no longer in receipt of legal aid.”

Murrell was first arrested in April 2023 as part of the police investigation into the SNP’s finances.

He was granted legal aid in April last year.

Murrell was sentenced in June this year after admitting embezzling £400,310.65 while he was the party’s chief executive.

Jailing Murrell for more than five years, Lord Young told him he had committed a “calculated crime of dishonesty”, with a “large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-year period while you were chief executive officer of the SNP”.

Commenting on the withdrawal of legal aid, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “This affluent crook, along with Scotland’s wealthy organised criminals, shouldn’t get a single penny of taxpayers’ money to pay their lawyers.”