The office of the medical examiner confirmed his death, without specifying the cause. US financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell in the New York prison, where he was awaiting trial for sexual assault on minors, according to information relayed Saturday, August 10, by several US media.
The New York Times, quoting officials on condition of anonymity, said the 66-year-old financier had hanged himself in his cell. His lifeless body was found Saturday morning around 7:30.
At the end of July, he had already been found lying on the floor in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a Manhattan prison, with marks on his neck, after what had been described as a possible suicide attempt.
The injuries, however, were not serious at that time and he then appeared in the following days at a court hearing.
Sexual exploitation of minors
Jeffrey Epstein was accused of organizing, for several years, a network of dozens of girls under influence, some college girls, with whom he had sex in his many properties.
On July 8, he was charged with the sexual exploitation of minors and criminal conspiracy to sexually exploit minors and was liable to 45 years' imprisonment. His trial was scheduled to begin in June 2020.
The US financier, whose fortune is estimated at more than $ 500 million had been rejected, July 18, a request for release on bail.
Generally used for litigants awaiting trial, the Metropolitan Correctional Center is considered one of the safest institutions in the United States. The Mexican drug liner Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo", stayed there for more than two years.
With AFP