PARIS: The Paris prosecutor&#39;s office announced it was setting up a special team of magistrates to analyze evidence that could implicate French nationals in the crimes of the convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. With Epstein&#39;s known circle now extending to prominent French figures after the release of documents by the US authorities, the prosecutor&#39;s office said it would also thoroughly re-examine the case of a former French modelling agency executive, Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of the American financier who died in custody in 2022. The new team will work closely with prosecutors from the national financial crimes unit and police with a view to opening investigations into any suspected crimes involving French nationals, the Paris prosecutor&#39;s office told AFP. The aim is &quot;to be able to extract any piece that could be usefully reused in a new investigative framework&quot;, it said. Brunel was found dead in his cell in a Paris prison in 2022 after having been charged with raping minors. The case against him was dropped in 2023 in the wake of his death, with no other person charged. Prosecutors said an investigation had shown Brunel was &quot;a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein&quot; who had offered modelling jobs to young girls from poor backgrounds. Brunel had engaged in sexual acts with underage girls in the United States, the US Virgin Islands, Paris and the south of France, they said. Ten women had made accusations against Brunel, several describing how they had been led to drink alcohol and had been subjected to forced sexual penetration, according to the prosecutor&#39;s office. New cases Several French public figures feature in the latest US Department of Justice release of material from the Epstein files, though being mentioned there does not in itself mean any offence has been committed. The prosecutor&#39;s office said it had been asked to look into three new specific cases involving a French diplomat, a modelling agent and a musician. At the request of the French foreign ministry it was looking into the reported appearance of senior diplomat Fabrice Aidan in the cache of Epstein-related documents published by the US authorities. &quot;An investigation is underway to gather various pieces of evidence that could substantiate this report,&quot; the prosecutor&#39;s office stated. The prosecutor&#39;s office has also received a complaint filed by a Swedish woman against Daniel Siad, a model recruiter with close ties to Epstein. She accused him of &quot;sexual acts that she describes as rape and that may have been committed in France in 1990&quot;, it said. The office has also received a complaint filed against French conductor Frederic Chaslin alleging acts of sexual harassment allegedly committed in 2016, it said. The latest release of Epstein files has led to French former minister Jack Lang resigning from his position as the head of a top cultural body, the Arab World Institute (IMA). Lang has however denied any wrongdoing, saying he was &quot;shocked&quot; that his name appeared in the statutes of an offshore company Epstein founded in 2016. The office of the national financial prosecutor said it had opened a preliminary investigation for &quot;aggravated tax fraud and money laundering&quot; against Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang.&nbsp;Following this announcement, Lang resigned from the presidency of the IMA. In an interview in newspaper La Tribune Dimanche, out on Sunday, Lang once again insists he is &quot;white as snow&quot;, denouncing what he describes as &quot;a tsunami of lies&quot; against him. He told the paper he had known nothing of Epstein&#39;s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution. Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking underage girls. The US authorities ruled his death was a suicide.

This undated photo taken in an unidentified location provided by the US Department of Justice on December 19, 2025 shows Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy US financier who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls. (via AFP)

Europe

The Paris prosecutor’s office formed a special team to investigate potential involvement of French nationals in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, re-examining Jean-Luc Brunel’s case and reviewing new allegations against public figures.

French prosecutors announce special team for Epstein files

ISLAMABAD: Colombian authorities said Sunday they had rescued 17 minors from members of Lev Tahor, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect under investigation for alleged child sex abuse. Lev Tahor, which practices a form of Judaism in which women wear black tunics covering them from head to toe, has been the subject of investigations for the mistreatment of minors in several countries. &quot;We have rescued 17 boys, girls and teens,&quot; the country&#39;s immigration service said on X, with pictures of some of the children, their faces blurred or shielded from view. &quot;International alerts have been issued over crimes against minors associated with this community.&quot; The raid took place on Saturday, police said. The minors -- who are of various nationalities including American and Guatemalan, were taken to a government-run center. &quot;There are indications that some of them may have been kidnapped, suggesting a possible human trafficking scenario, under the guise of religious activity,&quot; a police report said. The Lev Tahor sect was formed in the 1980s, and some members settled in Guatemala in 2013. Authorities estimate that the community is made up of roughly 50 families from Guatemala, the United States, Canada and other countries. Lev Tahor also has run into problems with officials in Mexico and Canada. Interpol has issued red notices for the arrest of some of the group&#39;s leaders. In December 2024, Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 minors from a farm occupied by Lev Tahor, alleging they were being abused. At the time, public prosecutor Dimas Jimenez told a press conference that the raid was carried out due to suspicions of &quot;forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape.&quot;

Americas

Lev Tahor has been the subject of investigations for the mistreatment of minors in several countries.

Colombia says 17 minors rescued from Jewish sect accused of abuse

PARIS:&nbsp;Thousands of protesters across France braved the cold on Saturday to express their anger over the persistence of violence against women and demand more public action and funds to combat the scourge. In Paris, crowds of demonstrators -- 50,000 according to organizers, 17,000 according to the police -- waved signs, chanted, danced and sang as they moved through the capital in the protests organized by the Greve feministe (Feminist Strike) collective of some 60 organizations. &ldquo;A man kills a woman every 2.5 days in France,&rdquo; read one placard distributed by the feminist collective NousToutes (All of us Women).<figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/d8643eab-513b-4cac-a05f-ce1f564629cc-France women protest1.jpg" alt="France women protest1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">PARIS: Protesters take part in a demonstration called by the French collective NousToutes (Us all) to protest against violence against women, at Place de La Republique in Paris, on November 22, 2025. -- Photo by AFP</figcaption></figure> &ldquo;Nine out of 10 victims know their rapist,&rdquo; read another. &lsquo;Loved without being abused&rsquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;It&#39;s 2025, is it still normal to count our dead women?&rdquo; said Sylvaine Grevin, president of the national femicide victims&#39; federation, whose sister was killed in 2017, ahead of the start of the Paris demonstration. Hundreds of protesters also gathered in the cold in other cities, creating crowds awash in purple -- a color linked to feminism. &ldquo;We have the right to be loved without being abused,&rdquo; said 20-year-old student Juliette in Lille in northern France. Intimate partner femicidesThe associations behind the protests are calling for the adoption of a comprehensive framework law against violence, along with a three-billion-euro budget ($3.5-billion) to implement it. They are also calling for improved education and funding for groups that support victims of violence. According to official figures published Thursday by MIPROF, a government organization tasked with protecting women from violence and fighting human trafficking, the number of intimate partner femicides rose by 11% between 2023 and 2024, with 107 women killed by their partner or ex-partner. &lsquo;Every two minutes&rsquo;&nbsp;A woman is a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault every two minutes, and every 23 seconds of sexual harassment, indecent exposure, or the unsolicited sending of sexual content, according to MIPROF. The Women&#39;s Foundation rights group estimates the minimum annual budget the government should allocate to protecting victims of domestic, gender-based and sexual violence in France is 2.6 billion euros -- equivalent to 0.5% of the state budget.

A woman is a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault every two minutes, and every 23 seconds of sexual harassment, indecent exposure, or the unsolicited sending of sexual content, according to MIPROF.

Articles tagged with "Sexual violence"

French prosecutors announce special team for Epstein files

Colombia says 17 minors rescued from Jewish sect accused of abuse

Thousands march in France to demand action on violence against women