Possible next steps after the arrest of former Prince Andrew

LONDON — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor may have been released from custody, but his legal saga is not over.

On Friday, police continued to search his former residence of Royal Lodge, in Windsor. This is where he used to live before his brother, King Charles III, asked him to leave last year amid mounting pressure over his relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Officers have now finished searches of Wood Farm, on the royal Sandringham Estate, where Mountbatten-Windsor moved earlier this month, according to Thames Valley Police.

His release is not uncommon in cases of alleged white-collar crime. It does not mean he has been cleared — nor does it mean he has been released on bail, so there are no “conditions” for his release. It merely indicates that police have finished with this round of questioning and are continuing the investigation.

The former prince being released “under investigation would indicate that this is going to be a long term process,” said Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent with London’s Metropolitan Police. It means “he’s suspected of a crime, he hasn’t been formally charged, and there’s no conditions. There’s no timeline as to how long the investigation will take.”

British authorities moved after the U.S. Justice Department released another 3.5 million files related to Epstein. Some of the documents detailed communications between Epstein and the former prince while he was serving as British trade envoy.

After his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, Mountbatten-Windsor was taken to Aylsham police station, in eastern England. He was released “under investigation” hours later, photographed slouched in the back of a car, starring into space with his hands clasped.

The former Prince Andrew could be brought back in for further questioning or “rearrested” if the police deem that necessary. He could also be asked about other lines of enquiry.

Moutbatten-Windsor has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein but has made no comment on allegations arising from the recent release of Epstein files.

After years of scrutiny and criticism over his ties with Epstein, his arrest was the first for a senior royal since Charles I, who was beheaded for treason in 1649.

His case exposes the complex and often messy relationship between Britain’s democratically elected government and its largely ceremonial but still powerful monarchy.

The king, 77, was not warned beforehand about his brother’s imminent arrest, a palace official told NBC News. But the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Britain’s national body that coordinates law enforcement, did tell the government, specifically the Home Office, 30 minutes beforehand “in line with routine practice,” Thames Valley Police, which made the arrest, said in a statement.

Ultimately, at some point the police and the Crown Prosecution Service will have to decide whether to charge Mountbatten-Windsor or not, a decision that might take weeks or months.

The name of this authority — the Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS — indicates just how extraordinary these circumstances are. Though the British monarchy has little everyday political power, the organs of the state still draw their authority from the throne.

If the former prince were to go to trial, it would be listed as “The King -v- Mountbatten-Windsor” — pitting the younger brother against the stately powers wielded by his regal elder sibling.

That would a legal, royal, cultural and international drama on unprecedented scale.

Even the arrest itself generated newspaper headlines and social media trending topics worldwide. The Times, Britain’s establishment newspaper of record, played it straight with, “The arrest of Andrew,” while the New York Post opted for the other extreme: “THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS.”

Mountbatten-Windsor has faced scrutiny and criticism since at least 2011, when furor erupted over his continued friendship with the disgraced financier who had recently served 13 months for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

One of the most prominent survivors of Epstein’s sexual abuse, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, alleged that the financier trafficked her to his powerful friends, including Mountbatten-Windsor against whom she filed a lawsuit in 2021 alleging that the former prince sexually abused her when she was 17.

Mountbatten-Windsor, who has always denied meeting with Giuffre, reached a legal settlement with her for an undisclosed amount in 2022. It contained no admission of liability or apology.

He has been among the least popular royals since least since 2019 — when a disastrous BBC interview brought his Epstein ties to the fore. That has only deepened.

A poll by YouGov on Friday found 82% of Britons now believe that the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II should be removed from the line of succession. He is currently 8th in line to the British throne.