Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law charged with drugs offences

First Minister Humza Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla – Alamy /Iain Masterton

Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law has been charged in connection with drugs offences, it has emerged.

Ramsay El-Nakla, the 36-year-old brother of the First Minister’s wife Nadia El-Nakla, is due to appear in court in Dundee on Monday.

Police Scotland said that a 50-year-old man and 41-year-old woman had also been charged, after they were traced following a report that a property had been broken into.

Mr Yousaf and Ms El-Nakla have declined to comment.

Ms El-Nakla, a psychotherapist and SNP councillor in Dundee, has become a prominent figure in recent months, regularly appearing in the media after her parents were trapped in Gaza during the war with Israel.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Officers were called to a report of a break-in at a property on Balmoral Gardens in Dundee during the evening of Thursday, 11 January.

“Three people – two men, aged 50 and 36, and a 41-year-old woman – were traced and all have been arrested and charged in connection with drug offences.

“All three are due to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Monday, 15 January, 2024.”

Ms El-Nakla’s parents, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, returned to Scotland in November after being stuck in Gaza for almost a month.

They had travelled there to visit another of their children, a Palestinian doctor called Mohammed, which coincided with Hamas launching its attacks on Israel on October 7.

The family have become outspoken opponents of Israel’s actions, with Ms El-Nakla last week describing attacks on Gaza as a “textbook genocide in real time”.

Although Mohammed’s wife and four children have been allowed to escape to Turkey, he remains in the enclave.

Dundee is epicentre of Scotland’s drug crisis

Speaking to The Sunday Post, Ms El-Nakla declined to comment on her brother Ramsay’s arrest.

“I don’t have any comment just now,” she told the newspaper. “Let’s see what happens in the next few days.” Mr Yousaf has also declined to comment.

Dundee is one of the epicentres of Scotland’s drugs death crisis. Mr Yousaf was justice secretary and health secretary before he replaced Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister last year.

Last year Ms El-Nakla spoke of completing a two-year placement at a counselling service for people suffering with addiction.

She said: “I worked with clients suffering from addiction and their families. I began to understand the complex struggle my clients were experiencing.

“For them, time stood still when battling against the overwhelming desire to escape trauma and pain and lose themselves into a world where the pain was temporarily gone.”

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