The Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Marlene Schiappa, and the Secretary of State for Child Protection, Adrien Taquet, called on Monday, August 12, the opening of an investigation into the French ramifications of the Jeffrey Epstein affair.
In a joint statement, Marlène Schiappa and Adrien Taquet, her counterpart to the Minister of Solidarities and Health, underline that the investigation into the American financier, who was found hanged in prison before his trial for sex trafficking of minors, "highlighted links with France".
[📰Press release] Case of the rape network on minors #Epstein: Secretaries of State @MarleneSchiappa and @AdrienTaquet request the opening of an investigation in France.
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"It seems to us fundamental, for the victims, that an investigation is opened in France so that all the light is made", they declare.
>> Read also: Charged with sex trafficking, US financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in prison
For both members of the government, "the death of Mr. Epstein should not deprive victims of the justice to which they are entitled". "This is an essential condition for their reconstruction, it is also a condition for more effective protection in the future of other girls facing this type of organized networks, facing this type of predators," they say. .
"Suicide apparent"
The causes of the death of the sexagenarian, jailed since July for multiple alleged sexual assaults on minors, described Saturday as "apparent suicide" by the prison administration, remain to be confirmed.
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.
With AFP and Reuters