LONDON (AP) — The estranged husband of Scotland's former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was sentenced Tuesday to five years and three months in prison for embezzling more than 400,000 pounds ($540,000) from the Scottish National Party to fund a luxury lifestyle when he was its chief executive.
Peter Murrell, 61, admitted using party funds to buy a high-priced motorhome, a Jaguar electric SUV, luxury goods such as Bremont watches and household items that included two toilet seats. He was given credit for time served.
“All told, this was a calculated crime of dishonesty,’’ Judge James Young said at the High Court in Edinburgh. “And let me make it clear to you, one factor in the sentence which I imposed today will be to act as a deterrent to any senior officials in other large organizations who might be tempted to abuse their position in the way that you did.''
Sturgeon, who led Scotland's semiautonomous government for more than eight years, has distanced herself from Murrell’s crimes and says she was not aware of his crimes.
Murrell’s sentencing caps a tumultuous period for Scotland’s dominant party, which supports independence from the United Kingdom, and the former power couple once at its helm.
Young said he couldn’t identify anything in Murrell's background, working life or personal circumstances that might explain his crimes or mitigate his sentence. But he acknowledged that public coverage of Murrell's downfall would make future employment difficult if not impossible.
“In truth, it is very difficult to get a clear picture for what drove your actions,’’ Young said. “Many of the high value items acquired by you were not even used.”
Murrell’s lawyer, John Scullion, told the court before the sentence was read out that the former political operative has been ostracized by his past colleagues, but he accepts blame for his actions.
“For many months he has lived in almost total isolation,” Scullion said.
The case has drawn widespread coverage in Scotland and across the U.K. ever since police searched Murrell's home on April 5, 2023, less than two months after Sturgeon resigned as leader of the Scottish National Party.
In addition to debates over the political implications of the case, newspapers and TV news featured comprehensive lists of the items Murrell bought with the embezzled money, from the luxurious to the banal.
Those included multiple expensive coffee makers, a pendant Sturgeon often was seen wearing, an egg poacher and DVDs of the TV series “Borgen” about the life of Denmark's fictional first female prime minister, which Sturgeon told reporters she liked.
Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell arrives in a prison van at Edinburgh High Court for sentencing, in Edinburgh, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (Jane Barlow/PA via AP)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s president arrived in Pakistan for talks Tuesday with officials who have been mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington on a permanent end to the war in the Middle East, even as discrepancies emerged on what had been agreed so far and violence broke out again in Lebanon.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad comes as technical teams were working on details of the deal following high-level negotiations in Switzerland on Monday led by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.
In Tehran, Iran's capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters that no visits have been scheduled for the U.N. watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — to examine Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the United States last year. Vance previously said the negotiations in Switzerland won an agreement for the IAEA to inspect the sites.
The IAEA has been in and out of Iran since Israel’s 12-day war in 2025, but has not been granted access to the bombed enrichment sites targeted by the U.S. at the time.
Meanwhile, violence flared again in southern Lebanon as Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing two people. The reports of violence came after two days of calm following a ceasefire brokered on Saturday. Any renewal of heavy fighting could threaten the broader diplomatic talks, since Iran has demanded that a full truce in Lebanon be part of any comprehensive deal.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other senior officials received Pezeshkian upon his arrival in Islamabad amid tight security, according to Pakistani state media. Television footage showed Pezeshkian embracing Zardari and Sharif as they welcomed him.
This is the Iranian president's first visit since the conflict started with the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran on Feb. 28.
Pezeshkian and Sharif were to hold a joint news conference after their discussions.
In the initial talks, marking the start of a 60-day diplomatic process that seeks to reach a permanent deal to end the Iran war, Iran and the U.S. agreed to create a “de-confliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. The U.S. said negotiators also discussed “mechanisms” to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil transit that Iran had effectively blocked during the war, remains open.
Ahead of his meetings in Pakistan, Pezeshkian cautioned that “the effectiveness of the talks depends on full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.”
“Progress on this path will be measured by practical adherence to accepted responsibilities,” he wrote on X. “Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations.”
Iran suggested that the ongoing technical talks in Switzerland have led to the creation of specific negotiation groups, including those focused on sanctions relief, nuclear issues, reconstruction, and monitoring, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
The report quoted Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister leading the technical talks, saying that the countries involved also formed a contact mechanism over ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz and over the fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.
It remains unclear whether the deconfliction cell being created will be enough to stop fighting between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel, which occupies part of Lebanon and insists it must maintain a free hand to attack militants launching attacks into northern Israel.
Israeli forces opened fire and killed two men in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, adding the pair were next to a bulldozer that was clearing the road at the time.
Separately, the agency said Israeli troops fired on residents on the outskirts of the town of Hadatha as they were heading to carry out a burial in the town’s ceremony with a Lebanese army escort.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Following the high-level talks in Switzerland, Vance had said if Iranian financial assets were unfrozen, they would be used to buy American-grown food.
Vance said that the U.S. and Qatar would have approval over the process, but if Iranian money becomes accessible as sanctions are lifted, it “would actually go to buy American soy, American corn and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.”
However, Iran has no current demand for U.S. crops and Baghaei said on Tuesday that Tehran’s decisions on what to import would be based on “prices and quality.”
“It is interesting that the philosophy and goal of the war, which was the destruction of the Iranian civilization and the collapse of Iran, has become enriching American farmers,” Baghaei said at the news conference in Tehran.
Iran’s ambassador in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, also questioned Vance’s contention that the U.S. and Qatar would have to approve how Iran uses unfrozen funds.
“Iran is the only country who decides what to do with those assets,” he told reporters.
Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the cell would include the Lebanese government and would “ensure the adherence of the termination of military operations in Lebanon,” but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised new questions late on Monday, saying his military still has “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or emerging threat to them or to the residents of the north.”
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the U.S.-Iran deal, and Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing.
When asked about Netanyahu’s comments, U.S. President Donald Trump later said “we’re going to take a look at it,” adding that he wouldn’t say what action he would take but that the situation would “get solved.”
“I’m a problem solver, I get problems solved real fast, including with Bibi,” he said, using a nickname for Netanyahu.
No Israeli airstrikes or shelling have been reported since Sunday, a day after a ceasefire was reached, and Hezbollah also has not claimed any attacks in what has been the longest halt in the fighting since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.
Lebanon and Israel planned another round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday, which are expected to focus on developing a plan for an Israeli withdrawal.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
A man walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Vehicles drives past welcoming billboards featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, center, and Shehbaz Sharif alongside an overhead bridge in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
A man walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, center, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, right, and Shehbaz Sharif along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
The welcoming billboard, featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, right, with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, center, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is displayed alongside of an overhead bridge, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
A woman walks past a welcoming billboard featuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian along a roadside in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
