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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2019
A man walks his dog next to a building belonging to Jeffrey Epstein in Paris. Model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, close to American financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been taken into police custody in France on suspicion of a series of crimes, including the rape of minors and the trafficking of minors for the purpose of sexual exploitation, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday. The prosecution indicated that Jean-Luc Brunel was placed in police custody for questioning on Wednesday.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / DEC. 17
Former model Thysia Huisman, who is among the women who accused Jean-Luc Brunel of rape, poses for a photo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Thursday that Brunel, a modeling agent associated with disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of various crimes, including the rape of minors and human trafficking for exploitation. sexual. Brunel was being investigated as part of a broad French probe into the alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by Epstein and his entourage.
PARIS >> A modeling agent associated with disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein has been charged in France with sexual harassment and rape of a minor over the age of 15.
Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested on Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to take a flight to Senegal.
The Paris prosecutor’s office announced in a statement today that the charges were pronounced on Friday by a magistrate at the end of Brunel’s police custody. He said Brunel had not faced any charges of human trafficking, which was one of the main lines of inquiry. The magistrate decided there was currently insufficient evidence to rule on this charge, but he was not acquitted and could be charged in the future if anything new emerged. Brunel was taken into custody.
Brunel is being investigated as part of a broad French investigation into the alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by Epstein and his entourage. Several women have identified themselves as victims and spoken to police since the French investigation opened in August last year, the same month in which Epstein killed himself in prison.
A former model who testified to French police that she was drugged and raped as a teenager by Brunel said she cried with joy when she learned of her detention.
