{"id":21562,"date":"2026-02-13T18:39:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=21562"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:39:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:39:03","slug":"murrell-court-date-delayed-until-after-election-daily-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=21562","title":{"rendered":"Murrell court date delayed until after election \u2013 Daily Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-189638 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"794\" height=\"527\" src=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-189638 lazyload\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid.png 794w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid-768x510.png 768w, https:\/\/dailybusinessgroup.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Peter-Murrell-BBC-vid-600x398.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Peter  Murrell: charges<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Former\u00a0SNP\u00a0chief executive\u00a0Peter Murrell\u2019s appearance in court on embezzlement charges has been postponed until after the\u00a0Scottish election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mr Murrell, who is the estranged husband of former\u00a0First Minister\u00a0Nicola Sturgeon, was\u00a0due to appear at a preliminary hearing\u00a0at High Court in Glasgow next Friday, 20 February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">It will now take place in Edinburgh on 25 May, 18 days after voters head to polling stations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mr Murrell was charged in April 2024 as part of\u00a0Operation Branchform, an investigation launched in July 2021 into missing SNP funds. He appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March last year and was granted bail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">He  is accused of embezzling \u00a3459,046.49 of party funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">As part of police enquiries the home of Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon was search, as was the SNP\u2019s party headquarters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The former First Minister and the party\u2019s former treasurer Colin Beattie were arrested, questioned and released in April 2023 and will not face any charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mr Murrell was chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years until he stood down in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The couple announced in January last year that they were to divorce.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Simple Share Buttons Adder (8.5.3) simplesharebuttons.com -->           \t            <\/div>\n<p><script>\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\nif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\nn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\ns.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script',\n'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n fbq('init', '1192059580980274'); \nfbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script>#Murrell #court #date #delayed #election #Daily #Business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Murrell: charges Former\u00a0&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[266,504,265,5368,8013,405,12980,9629],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}