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A prominent former Norwegian diplomat, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, will apologise for his dealings with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a documentary to be broadcast on Wednesday evening.
Terje Rod-Larsen and his wife, fellow diplomat Mona Juul, are currently under investigation in Norway. Juul for “aggravated corruption” and Rod-Larsen for “complicity in aggravated corruption.”
They are both known for having played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
In particular, police are investigating a loan given by Epstein, his involvement in the couple’s purchase of a flat in Oslo at below market price, a trip to the American financier’s island in 2011, and the payment of home help services for Rod-Larsen.
The couple deny having committed any offence.
Epstein had also in his will left $10 million (€8.7 million) to their two children. One of them took his own life in April aged 25.
“I deeply regret today the relationship I had with Epstein,” Rod-Larsen told public broadcaster NRK in a documentary premiering on Wednesday evening.
“I should have cut all ties with him earlier,” he said.
Documents released at the end of January by the US Department of Justice revealed sustained, long-lasting contacts with Epstein up until 2019, the year he died while in jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
In 2008, Epstein had already been convicted of recruiting a minor for prostitution.
Now in poor health after two strokes, Rod-Larsen justified his dealings with Epstein by the intermediary and donor roles he played. At the time, between 2005-2020, Rod-Larsen was heading the International Peace Institute (IPI) think tank in New York.
The Epstein affair has implicated several other prominent Norwegian personalities, including Queen Mette-Marit and former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland, who later chaired the committee that selects Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Norway’s parliament has launched a parliamentary scrutiny procedure and set up an independent commission.
Next week, the parliament’s committee on constitutional affairs will question foreign minister Espen Barth Eide and all his predecessors since 2005, including Jonas Gahr Støre, who has since become prime minister.
Additional sources • AFP
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