Police in Norway searched properties belonging to former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland on Thursday, his lawyer said, following the launch of a corruption probe over his dealings with late disgraced financier and convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Jagland is being investigated after documents the US Justice Department released in January suggested he and his family stayed or vacationed with Epstein between 2011 and 2018, when he was chairing the Nobel Committee, which awards the Peace Prize and was also secretary general of the pan-continental Council of Europe.
Police with the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit were “currently conducting searches of Thorbjørn Jagland’s residence and recreational properties,” his lawyer Anders Brosveet said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Council of Europe said it was honouring a request from Norwegian authorities to waive Jagland’s immunity from legal processes that he had previously enjoyed.
The pan-European human rights body based in Strasbourg said that such immunity aims “to safeguard the independent exercise of official functions,” and wasn’t intended for “personal benefit.”
Jagland was a controversial figure when he headed the Council of Europe and was repeatedly accused by both Norwegian and international media of being too servile towards Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.
Following the initial invasion of Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia was placed under voting sanctions, but Jagland spearheaded efforts in 2019 to restore Moscow’s voting rights.
Russia was ultimately expelled from the body following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Council members and analysts criticised Jagland for giving in to alleged Russian “blackmail”.
Further links to Epstein in Norway
The latest batch of Epstein documents released in January also showed that Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the 52-year-old wife of Crown Prince Haakon, borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach for several days in 2013.
In an email exchange between Epstein and Mette-Marit in 2012, he noted how he was in Paris “on my wife hunt,” but “i prefer Scandinavians”.
She replied that the French capital was “good for adultery,” but “Scandis” were “better wife material.”
Mette-Marit apologised this month for “the situation I have put the royal family in,” and said: “Some of the content of the messages between Epstein and me does not represent the person I want to be.”
Mona Juul, Norway’s former ambassador to Jordan, who was involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts in the 1990s, resigned over the weekend after reports said that Epstein left $10 million (€8.4 million) to Juul’s children in a will drawn up shortly before he died.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that a ministry investigation into her knowledge of and contact with Epstein remained ongoing, while Juul would continue to cooperate with Norwegian officials to clarify the situation.
At the end of January, the US Justice Department released further investigative files into Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire’s sexual abuse of young girls.
Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents, as well as more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
The files, posted to the department’s website, include some of the several million pages of records that officials said were withheld from an initial release of documents in December.
They were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mention in the files does not implicate wrongdoing. However, the files revealed many maintained close ties to Epstein, particularly after his conviction in 2008, sparkingseveral high-profile scandals across Europe since January.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
