Nicola Sturgeon is free to answer questions from the media on an investigation into SNP finances, a former police union boss has claimed.
Senior Nationalists have regularly cited the Contempt of Court Act when asked about Operation Branchform in recent weeks, insisting they are unable to comment on a live police investigation.
But Calum Steele, the former head of the Scottish Police Federation, said there was "no legal prohibition on the former first minister answering questions on what she knew and when".
He said commentary on the case had continued in the press and on social media "to the annoyance of SNP loyalists" who believe Contempt of Court rules should have shut it down.
Detectives are examining how hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of donations to the SNP have been spent.
Peter Murrell, Sturgeon's husband, was questioned for several hours last month before being released without charge.
The house the couple share in Glasgow was also searched over two days.
Colin Beattie, an MSP and former SNP treasurer, was also quizzed by detectives last month before being released without charge.
"The arrests of Peter Murrell and Colin Beattie provoked a predictable chorus that the matter was active as far as the Contempt of Court Act 1981 was concerned and that caution should be exercised in discussing the events in the public arena," Steele wrote in The Times.
"To the annoyance of SNP loyalists, these warnings have clearly had a limited impact as press, public and political commentary has followed relatively unabated."
Steele, who stood down from the Scottish Police Federation last year, added: "If the warnings relate to the public profile of the potential suspects, and their relationship with the former first minister, I have a problem with that.
"Thousands of people find themselves before our courts each year.
"Almost without exception they have been talked about, speculated about and even maligned in their own communities a long time before any sheriff has passed judgment.
"Why should the powerful have a shield denied to the masses?
"There is no legal prohibition on the former first minister answering questions about what she knew and when. There may be, of course, legal reasons that she would be insane to do so, but the fig leaf of a live police investigation is not one."
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