33-year-old man accused of posting “Hogmanay party at Sturgeon’s house” on Facebook

Scottish police have been accused of “arresting people for a joke” after a man was accused of allegedly posting on social media inviting partygoers to a party in Hogmanay at Nicole Sturgeon’s home.

More than 1,000 people responded to the fake Facebook a message about the basha at the address of the first minister near Glasgow.

The page titled ‘NYE street party @ Sturgeon’s house’ claimed it would ‘bring a celebration to Sturgeon’s’ after the SNP leader introduced new Covid restrictions this week by ‘canceling’ mass celebrations in Hogmanay.

Police are known to have detained the 33-year-old at his home in Hamilton last night. He was later released and is due to appear in Hamilton Sheriff Court next month.

The incident and the man who allegedly founded the site were reported to police by Ms. Sturgeon Gillian’s sister.

But the decision to arrest and charge the man sparked a response on social media against the sturgeon.

One Twitter user claimed that ‘Scotland is slipping fast towards a very worrying form of authoritarianism’ and another thought, ‘We arrest people for joking, right? Christ’.

Another said, ‘She (Mrs. Sturgeon) really hates it when she sees one of us trying to have fun.’ A third added: “Charged for organizing the party. Even North Korea would think it goes too far.

Others praised the man who prepared the event and called him a “legend”.

A Scottish police spokesman said: “A 33-year-old man has been arrested and charged with breaches of communications. He has been released on bail to appear in court at a later date.”

The first minister is facing a considerable response to her recent restrictions, which will effectively ban football fans from playing games, big New Year’s Eve parties, restricting bars to a table only and closing nightclubs.

Its measures will take effect with Boxing Day and are expected to last at least three weeks when Omicron plunges the country into crisis.

Catering executives called the shutdown measures “another hammer blow to employers and the Scottish economy”.

A crowd of young football fans at the Hibernian match against Aberdeen this week was filmed shouting ‘Sturgeon, get tae f ***’.

Others at the race held a banner reading ‘open your homes to Cop26, closed doors to fans, fucking SNP’.

On Tuesday, Ms. Sturgeon revealed that there had been nine new deaths and 5,242 positive tests in the past 24 hours.

Similar measures have been introduced in Wales, despite the release of studies showing that Omicron is less likely to lead to serious diseases than previous versions.

Their approach contrasts with that in England, where Sajid Javid welcomed “soothing” new data showing that Omicron posed a 40 percent lower risk of hospitalization overnight than other versions.

The Minister for Health also confirmed that no new restrictions will be announced in England until at least next week.