Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's longest-serving first minister, was arrested on Sunday as part of an ongoing police probe into the SNP's finances.
Police Scotland said Sturgeon, who stepped down in March, was taken into custody today and was questioned by detectives before being released without charge pending further investigations.
A statement from Police Scotland, released via The Mirror, said: "A 52-year-old woman has today, Sunday, June 11, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party."
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The arrest was part of Operation Branchform, a probe by police into the spending of around £600,000 (€700,600) earmarked for independence campaigning.
According to a spokeswoman for Sturgeon, the former SNP leader was cooperating with the investigation.
The spokeswoman said: "Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday, June 11, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform.
"Nicola has consistently said she would cooperate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so."
The arrest comes just two months after Sturgeon's husband 58-year-old Peter Murrell, a former SNP chief executive, was arrested.
In April, officers raided Sturgeon and her husband's home in Uddingston, outside Glasgow, with a police tent erected in their garden.
Police also searched the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh and seized a luxury campervan from outside a house in Dunfermline, Fife, understood to be the address of Sturgeon's mother-in-law.
Both Murrell and MSP Colin Beattie, SNP treasurer at the time, were released without charge pending further inquiry.
Sturgeon stood down as first minister and SNP leader in March after nearly nine years at the top of Scottish politics. She continues to be the MSP for Glasgow Southside.
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