Photo of Nicola Sturgeon in a police vehicle is edited

Photo showing Nicola Sturgeon in the back of a police car is edited

(Reuters) - An edited photograph showing Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in the back seat of a police vehicle was widely circulated online after she was arrested as part of a police investigation in June 2023.

Sturgeon was questioned and held for more than seven hours by Police Scotland in connection with a probe into use of funds raised by the Scottish National Party, reported Reuters (here) She was released without charge, pending further investigation.

Examples of the altered image, shared as showing Sturgeon’s arrest, are visible on Facebook (here), (here) and Twitter (here).

The original photo, which shows Sturgeon looking out the window of a grey-coloured car, was captured by John Linton on April 18, 2017, and is captioned: “First Minister Nicola Sturgeon leaves Bute House in Edinburgh, as she has warned that the Prime Minister's plans for a shock general election could be a ‘huge political miscalculation’” on Getty images (here).

The image was edited to include the car with the yellow-and-blue checkered pattern, typical of police vehicles in Scotland (here).

VERDICT

Altered. A photo showing Nicola Sturgeon in the back of a police car is edited and unrelated to her June 2023 arrest.