Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of British King Charles III, has secured the cancellation of warrants under which police searched his homes as part of an investigation into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The investigation continues, and the fate of seized items and documents is still to be decided by a court. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Judge Nicholas Hilliard of the High Court in London pointed to errors in issuing the search permissions. In particular, the court did not take into account that police could have seized documents protected by legal professional privilege. A special procedure is provided for such materials.
Andrew challenged the warrants, and police admitted they were issued unlawfully.
Police want to keep the seized materials, while the former prince demands their return. The court will decide this issue next year.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and the younger brother of Charles III. He was formerly Duke of York and represented the royal family at official events. After a scandal over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, he stopped performing these duties in 2019, and in 2025 he lost his royal titles.
One of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, claimed that the financier forced her into sexual contact with Andrew when she was 17. The prince denied the accusations. In 2022, they reached an out-of-court settlement without him admitting liability.
Police are now checking whether Andrew passed confidential state information to Epstein. His work as the UK's trade representative in 2001–2011 came under suspicion. The investigation was prompted by materials from the Epstein case published in the US.
On February 19, 2026, Andrew was detained, questioned and released. No charges have been brought against him so far. He denies any wrongdoing.
Jeffrey Epstein was an American financier who became the subject of one of the most high-profile criminal cases of recent decades. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in a case involving the procurement of a minor for prostitution and received a prison sentence.
In 2019, he was detained again on charges of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of girls. Before sentencing, Epstein took his own life in a detention center.
The day before, a federal court in New York refused to overturn the sentence of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year term. A jury found her guilty in December 2021. According to investigators, in 1994–2004 she helped Epstein find underage girls and prepare them for sexual exploitation.
On January 30, 2026, part of the archives related to him — correspondence, photographs and video — was released in the US. According to the US Department of Justice, investigators identified more than 1,200 victims. As Kursiv wrote, victims will receive $72.5 million from Bank of America.
Kazakhstan is mentioned in the documents about 400 times. Kursiv previously reported that among the names mentioned are former National Security Committee head Karim Massimov and former son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, Rakhat Aliyev.