Terje Rød-Larsen apologizes for links to Jeffrey Epstein

Former Norwegian senior diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen, one of the architects of the Oslo Accords, apologized for his past links with American sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein during a documentary broadcast on Wednesday in Norway. Terje Rød-Larsen and his wife, diplomat Mona Juul, also involved in peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians, are currently under investigation in Norway, she for “aggravated corruption”, he for “complicity in aggravated corruption”.

Regrets about this relationship

The police are investigating in particular a money loan granted by the American financier, his intervention in the couple's purchase of an apartment in Oslo at a price below the market price, a trip to Epstein's island in 2011, or even the payment for home help services for Terje Rød-Larsen. The couple denies having committed any offense.

In his will, Epstein had also planned to leave $10 million to their two children. One, aged 25, committed suicide in April. “Today I deeply regret the relationship I had with Epstein,” Terje Rød-Larsen told public broadcaster NRK as part of a documentary to be broadcast on Wednesday evening. “I should have severed all ties with him sooner,” he said.

A “superdiplomat” couple, Terje Rød-Larsen and Mona Juul both played important roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s.

Weakened by two strokes

Documents released at the end of January by the US Department of Justice highlighted lasting and very sustained contact with Epstein until 2019, the year the sex criminal committed suicide in prison. In 2008, Epstein was already convicted of recruiting a minor for prostitution.

Now weakened after two strokes, Rød-Larsen justifies these links by the roles of intermediary and donor that Epstein played, while the Norwegian chaired the International Peace Institute (IPI) think tank in New York, a position he held from 2005 to 2020. Following the revelations on the Epstein affair which splashed several personalities in the country, the Norwegian Parliament launched a parliamentary control procedure and created a independent commission of inquiry.

Next week, its Control and Constitutional Affairs Committee will hear the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and his predecessors since 2005, including Jonas Gahr Støre, who has since become Prime Minister.