Epstein affair: acts committed could constitute crimes against humanity, say UN experts

Rape, trafficking of minors, sexual slavery… The millions of documents published by the American justice system at the end of January regarding the Epstein affair testify to the extent of the crimes of the American financier, found dead in his prison cell in New York in 2019. A “large-scale system” denounced by several UN experts in a press release published at the beginning of the week.

“The scale, nature, systematic nature and transnational scope of these atrocities committed against women and girls are so serious that a number of them could meet the legal criteria for crimes against humanity,” they write.

UN experts note that the “Epstein Files” suggest “the existence of a global criminal enterprise” which has claimed victims “in different regions of the world”, including French-speaking ones.

In a letter to the US Congress in December, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche explained that his administration had identified more than 1,200 people who were victims or relatives of victims.

ICC seized?

“If we look at the definition of a crime against humanity, it is an attack that is carried out against a group of civilians with the aim of causing them suffering. Even if we have only seen perhaps 2% of the Epstein documents, their content shows that certain facts tick these boxes,” indicates Reem Alsalem, UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, according to comments reported by France info.

This source assures that the International Criminal Court could take up the case, one of the protagonists in the case, Ghislaine Maxwell, being a British national.

“The madam of the Epstein affair”, who is serving a twenty-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, is detained in the United States and refused in early February to speak before a parliamentary committee, pleading instead for a presidential pardon.

For UN experts, the resignations in the wake of the publication of the documents by the American justice system “cannot in themselves replace criminal responsibility”.

In France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau invited potential victims of Jeffrey Epstein to file a complaint this Wednesday. “If they wish, we will receive all the statements they would like to make, either through complaints or testimonies,” she assured.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office “has specific jurisdiction (…) either when the perpetrators are French” and “including when the acts are committed abroad (…) or when the victims are French”, recalled its head. In the event that Paris is still not competent, the prosecution would “transmit the whole thing” to the authorities who are.