LONDON
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has said he supports a parliamentary-appointed commission of inquiry into the Jeffrey Epstein case amid growing scrutiny of Norway’s links to the deceased sex offender.
“For the Labour Party, it is absolutely crucial to get to the bottom of the matter,” Store said Monday, according to Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.
He stressed that both the government and the Labour Party would ensure full transparency on all issues related to the Epstein case.
Norway’s ambassador to Jordan and Iraq, Mona Juul, resigned from her post Sunday following reports of alleged links to Epstein.
“Juul’s contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement Monday announcing her resignation. “The situation makes it difficult to restore the trust that the role requires.”
The Foreign Ministry said documents related to Epstein revealed several details concerning Juul, without providing further specifics. An investigation has been opened into Juul’s knowledge of and contact with Epstein, it added.
Juul, her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, and former Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland appear several times in Epstein’s emails.
Other prominent Norwegians have appeared in the Epstein files, including Crown Princess Mette-Marit and World Economic Forum President and former Foreign Minister Borge Brende.
Several individuals in Norway are reportedly under investigation for their alleged connections to Epstein.
The US Justice Department recently released more than 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images related to Epstein under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The files include photos of prominent figures, grand jury transcripts and investigative records, though many pages were heavily redacted.
Epstein was found dead by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of operating a sex trafficking network involving underage girls and women.
