Norwegian police said today they had searched properties belonging to former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland following the launch of a corruption probe over his dealings with US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Jagland is being investigated after documents released by the US Justice Department in January suggested that he and/or his family stayed or vacationed with Epstein between 2011 and 2018.
Jagland was Norway’s prime minister from 1996 to 1997 and secretary general of the Council of Europe from 2009 to 2019.
Between January 2009 and March 2015, he also chaired the committee that selects the winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
In the documents released, Epstein referred to Jagland as “the Nobel big shot”.
Pal Lonseth, chief of the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit, said that Jagland’s residence in Oslo had been searched.
“Okokrim also conducted searches at two other properties in Risor and Rauland” in southern Norway, Lonseth said.
Images shown on Norwegian TV showed several people carrying boxes at Jagland’s Oslo home carrying boxes. He was filmed smiling as he left the premises with his lawyer.
The searches were made possible by the lifting of his immunity on Wednesday by the Council of Europe, Lonseth explained.
Police opened an investigation for “aggravated corruption” against the 75-year-old former leader of Norway’s Labour party last week.
In a separate statement, Jagland’s lawyer, Anders Brosveet, said the searches were expected and standard procedure in these types of investigations.
“Jagland wishes to contribute to ensuring that the case is thoroughly clarified, and the next step is that he will appear for questioning by Okokrim — as he himself has stated he wants,” the lawyer said.
After previously maintaining that his ties with Epstein were part of normal diplomatic activities, Jagland told newspaper Aftenposten this month that he had shown “poor judgment”.
Several other prominent Norwegians have been caught up in the turmoil after the release of a new cache of nearly three million documents related to the investigation of Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Among them are hundreds of emails dated between 2011 and 2014 — often with a strikingly intimate tone — between Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit and the financier, who had already been convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor.
Also named in the files are World Economic Forum CEO and former foreign minister Borge Brende, and another former premier, Kjell Magne Bondevik.
Norwegian police have also opened an investigation into “aggravated corruption” against high-profile diplomat Mona Juul, along with her husband Terje Rod-Larsen for complicity.
