cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/41254646

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The Paris prosecutor's office on Saturday, February 14 announced it was setting up a special team of magistrates to analyse files relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The new team will work closely with prosecutors from the national financial crimes unit and police with a view to opening investigations into any suspected crimes involving French nationals, the office told AFP.

As part of that initiative, they will be reopening their files on the late Jean-Luc Brunel, a former French modeling agency executive. The aim is "to be able to extract any piece that could be usefully reused in a new investigative framework," said prosecutors.

Brunel, who had links with Epstein, was found dead in his cell in a Paris prison in 2022 after having been charged with raping minors.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking children, in what the US authorities ruled was a suicide.

Several French public figures feature in the latest US Department of Justice release of material from the Epstein files, though being mentioned there does not in itself mean any offence has been committed. Three new specific cases

The prosecutor's office said it had been asked to look into three new specific cases involving a French diplomat, a modelling agent and a musician.

At the request of the French foreign ministry it was looking into the reported appearance of senior diplomat Fabrice Aidan in the cache of Epstein-related documents published by the US authorities. "An investigation is underway to gather various pieces of evidence that could substantiate this report," the prosecutor's office stated.

The prosecutor's office has also received a complaint filed by a Swedish woman against Daniel Siad, a model recruiter with close ties to Epstein. She accused him of "sexual acts that she describes as rape and that may have been committed in France in 1990", it said.

The office has also received a complaint filed against French conductor Frederic Chaslin alleging acts of sexual harassment allegedly committed in 2016, it said.

The latest release of Epstein files has led to French former minister Jack Lang resigning from his position as the head of a top cultural body, the Arab World Institute (IMA).