Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor wins right to challenge police searches

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been granted permission to challenge the legality of the police searches behind his arrest in February.

A High Court judge recently approved his application for judicial review, the court process in which a judge examines whether a public body acted lawfully. The application was made earlier this year, according to The Guardian.

A private High Court hearing in the case will take place on Thursday. It will decide whether certain court documents linked to the review should be released.

The challenge centres on search warrants, the court orders that allow police to enter and search property. Mountbatten-Windsor is seeking to quash the warrants that allowed Thames Valley Police to raid his residence on the Sandringham estate and his former Windsor home, Royal Lodge.

He was arrested on his 66th birthday on suspicion of misconduct in public office, an allegation centred on misuse of a public role. The arrest related to allegations that he shared sensitive information with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy.

Late last year King Charles stripped his brother of his right to be called a prince and of his dukedom over his association with Epstein. After the arrest in February, the King said “law must take its course,” as reported by Reuters.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing or accusations against him, as reported by The Guardian. Police said at the time that he was not arrested for anything surrounding Virginia Giuffre, according to BBC News.

Separate lines of inquiry continued around the arrest. Police planned to question Mountbatten-Windsor’s former protection officers over the Epstein links, and a government minister did not rule out a judge-led inquiry into the association.

For now the question is narrow. The court must decide what papers can be made public, before any full hearing on whether the warrants were lawful.