Norwegian police said Monday they had launched a corruption investigation into a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen as an accomplice, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offences have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul was head of section at Norway’s foreign ministry before becoming Norway’s ambassador to the UK during the 2010s.
According to exchanges unearthed by Norwegian media in the recently released cache of Epstein files, it was during that time that Juul and her husband were in contact with Epstein.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein, who died in 2019 while in jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking, left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether (Juul) received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
“My client does not recognise the accusations made against her,” Juul’s lawyer Thomas Skjelbred said, adding that she was to be questioned by Okokrim this week.
“Rod-Larsen is confident that once all the factual circumstances have been thoroughly reviewed, the investigation will clarify that there is no basis for criminal liability, and the case will be dismissed,” his lawyer, John Christian Elden, said.
– Former PM investigated –
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal ministry investigation into her alleged links to Epstein.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland is also being investigated for corruption over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted”.
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by parliament to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.
The mention of someone’s name in the US files does not necessarily imply wrongdoing.
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