Washington (AFP)
The director of the Manhattan federal prison was transferred on a temporary basis and two of the employees suspended after the death Saturday in detention of the financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sexual assault on minors.
"Today, the Minister of Justice ordered the prison authorities to temporarily transfer the director of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (...) pending the outcome of the investigation by the FBI and the Inspector General," he said. said Tuesday in a statement the ministry spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec.
"The prison administration also suspended two MCC employees responsible for the prison unit where Mr. Epstein was detained, pending the outcome of the investigations," she added, adding that "additional measures could be taken. taken".
Epstein, 66, was found dead around 6:30 am on Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a prison deemed particularly safe, where he was awaiting a trial scheduled to begin no earlier than June 2020.
He was arrested on July 6 and charged in New York for organizing, from 2002 to 2005 at least, a network of dozens of girls, some college girls, with whom he had sex in his many properties, including Manhattan and Florida.
On Monday, Minister William Barr denounced the deficiencies "to adequately secure" the prison where had been held since early July the financier, who was long a figure of the jet set before becoming one of the most prominent detainees of the country.
Several media reported Sunday that Epstein was left alone in his cell while the detainees were supposed to be still two, and that the rounds scheduled every 30 minutes were not respected.
© 2019 AFP