NEW YORK: An
autopsy on disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein - who was found dead in his
jail cell - has concluded that he committed suicide by hanging, a coroner said,
answering one of the questions surrounding his death. The ruling comes six days
after the 66-year-old, who was accused of trafficking girls as young as 14 for
sex, was discovered dead in New York's high-security Metropolitan Correctional
Center. New York's chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson said in a statement
emailed to AFP that "after careful review of all investigative
information, including complete autopsy findings" it was determined that
Epstein killed himself.

The New York
Times cited officials as saying that Epstein had used a bedsheet to hang
himself. The report came a day after US media reported that preliminary
findings from the post-mortem examination had found broken bones in Epstein's
neck. Epstein, a multi-millionaire who once counted Britain's Prince Andrew and
US President Donald Trump as friends, was charged with one count of sex
trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of
minors.

According to
prosecutors, Epstein sexually exploited dozens of teenagers at his homes in
Manhattan and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He denied the charges but faced up
to 45 years in jail if found guilty. 
Epstein's lawyers said Friday they were "not satisfied with the
conclusions of the medical examiner" and would conduct their own investigation
into his death, including demanding to see video footage from the jail.

"It is
indisputable that the authorities violated their own protocols," the
lawyers said, decrying the "harsh, even medieval conditions" at the
facility. The FBI and Justice Department are investigating how such a
high-profile inmate managed to take his own life just weeks after an earlier
reported suicide attempt. The warden of the Metropolitan Correctional Center
where Epstein was housed has been temporarily reassigned and two guards put on
administrative leave pending an investigation. The guards were reportedly
asleep when they should have been checking on Epstein.

Epstein's death
came a day after a court released documents in which an alleged victim said he
used her as a "sex slave" and that she was forced to have sex with
well-known politicians and businessmen. Virginia Giuffre has alleged she was
forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, former US Senator and architect of the
Northern Irish peace deal George Mitchell, ex-New Mexico governor Bill
Richardson and American celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

Lawsuits

They have all
strenuously denied the allegations. Prosecutors have pledged to pursue cases
against anyone else involved in Epstein's alleged crimes and earlier this week
FBI agents raided his private island in the Caribbean. Several women have also
come forward seeking damages. On Wednesday, Jennifer Araoz filed a lawsuit
against Epstein's estate, his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and three
other female accomplices.

Araoz said she
was raped by Epstein as a 15-year-old. She said Maxwell, a British socialite
and daughter of the late fraudster and media mogul Robert Maxwell, enabled his
crimes. Maxwell's whereabouts are unknown but she was recently photographed at
a restaurant in Los Angeles, according to US reports. On Friday two other women
filed a $100 million lawsuit against Epstein's estate. They were working as
hostesses in a Manhattan restaurant in 2004 when a woman described as a
"recruiter" for Epstein approached them, they said.

The recruiter
allegedly offered the pair hundreds of dollars each to go to Epstein's home and
give him a massage, assuring them there would be no sexual contact, according
to the lawsuit. Two days later they went to Epstein's luxurious mansion near
Central Park. Once they were in the massage room, the eight-page lawsuit said,
Epstein was sexually aggressive towards them before giving them several hundred
dollars. Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of paying young girls for
massages but served just 13 months in jail under a secret plea deal struck with
the then state prosecutor. - AFP