Days after former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested by Thames Police on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a British political campaign group, Everyone Hates Elon, on 22 February (local time) hung his photo inside the Louvre museum in Paris, The Guardian reported.
The group fixed the photo, which shows Andrew slouched in the backseat of a Range Rover, on a wall of the Paris gallery. Affixed to the wall under the frame is a card that reads, “He’s sweating now”, with 2026 mentioned below it. Andrew’s photo was taken by a journalist after his arrest on 19 February at the Sandringham estate. Following his arrest, he spent 11 hours in police custody at Aylsham police station in Norfolk.
Everyone Hates Elon claims that it targets “billionaires and their politician mates” via provocative stunts. Previously, the group put up posters of Manchester United players in London with the message: “Immigration has done more for this city than billionaire tax dodgers ever have.” The campaign followed comments by the club’s largest individual shareholder, Jim Ratcliffe, who said the UK was being “colonised” by immigrants.
In a separate incident, the group also unveiled a huge sign in St Mark’s Square in Venice during Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s wedding in the city. The sign also carried a message, which read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax”.
Troubles mount for Andrew?
This comes at a time when trouble continues to mount for Andrew, who has been facing intense scrutiny over his association with Jeffrey Epstein, the late US-based wealthy financier, who was also a convicted sex offender. While Andrew continues to deny any wrongdoing, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on 30 January released a massive trove of documents, including photos and videos. Inside the files are correspondence between Andrew and Epstein, who met on more than one occasion.
The documents also revealed that Andrew, who served as the UK’s trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, shared confidential information with Epstein after he returned from a trip to Asia in November 2010.
According to a BBC report, several retired civil servants have now come forward, alleging that Andrew, during his time as the trade envoy, used taxpayers’ funds for massages and excessive travel plans. They further claimed that while they could not have stopped him, since the decision was overruled by seniors, they now regret not flagging the issue when something was wrong.
Last week, the UK’s Defense Minister Luke Pollard told the BBC that the government, along with Buckingham Palace, is working to bring legislation, which would remove Andrew from the line of succession. It is worth noting that despite being stripped of his titles, including “prince”, he is still eighth in line to the throne.
Epstein-Andrew ties
The ties between the two men date back to the early 2000s, when he was accused by Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein survivor, who accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her on different occasions. In the files that were released recently, another email from December 2010 revealed how Andrew sent the convicted sex offender a confidential document on investment opportunities in Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The province, at the time, was undergoing reconstruction and was being overseen by the British armed forces.
