Jeffrey Epstein

NEW YORK:
Disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein has committed suicide in prison while
awaiting trial on charges that he trafficked underage girls for sex, officials
and US news media reported yesterday. Epstein, a convicted pedophile who
befriended numerous politicians and celebrities over the years, was found
unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center from "an
apparent suicide", the US Department of Justice said.

He was discovered
around 6:30 am (1130 GMT) and rushed to hospital in New York where he was
pronounced dead, it added in a statement. "The FBI is investigating the
incident," the department said. The New York Times and other media quoted
officials as saying Epstein had hanged himself. The city medical examiner's
office confirmed Epstein's death but said nothing about what caused it. It said
a medical investigation has been opened.

Epstein's death
comes a day after a tranche of sealed legal documents were released for the
first time providing new details about what prosecutors allege was Epstein's
sex-trafficking operation. It also comes just over two weeks after the
66-year-old was found unconscious in his cell with marks on his neck after an
apparent suicide attempt. Epstein did not appear to be showing any visible
signs of injuries when he appeared in court on July 31 following that incident,
to be told that his trial wouldn't begin before June next year.

The hedge fund
manager had been charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one
count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He was denied bail
last month in a New York court because he was deemed a flight risk. Epstein
denied the charges and had faced up to 45 years in prison - effectively the
rest of his life - if convicted.

The Metropolitan
Correction Center, a federal facility in Manhattan that is often used to house
suspects awaiting or during trial, is considered one of the most secure penal
establishments in the US. The infamous Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin "El
Chapo" Guzman spent more than two years there before being convicted and
transferred to a federal prison in Colorado.

Epstein's death
quickly raised questions about how he could take his own life despite
reportedly being put on suicide watch after his first failed attempt. "We
need answers. Lots of them," tweeted New York Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez. On Friday, two thousand pages of documents focusing on testimony
by a victim who claimed she was a "sex slave" of Epstein were
released by a New York court. In them, Virginia Giuffre, now an adult, claims
that she was forced to have sex with some well-known American political and
business personalities. They have all strenuously denied the allegations.

Prosecutors said
Epstein sexually exploited dozens of underage teenagers, some as young as 14,
at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005. They
claim that Epstein was "well aware that many of the victims were
minors." The girls were paid hundreds of dollars in cash to massage him,
perform sexual acts and to recruit other girls, prosecutors allege.

They say Epstein
had an army of recruiters, often not much older than their targets, who would
approach vulnerable teens. Epstein is also accused of paying off possible
co-conspirators to "influence" them, US media have reported. Epstein,
whose friends have included President Donald Trump, former president Bill
Clinton and Britain's Prince Andrew, was convicted previously of paying young girls
for sexual massages at his Palm Beach mansion. They have all denied knowing
anything about his alleged crimes.

Epstein avoided
federal prosecution under a plea deal that required him to admit to a single
Florida state charge of soliciting prostitution from a minor and register as a
sex offender. He served 13 months in a county jail before being released in
2009. Last month, Alex Acosta resigned as US labor secretary amid a backlash
over the deal that he negotiated with Epstein in that case while he was a
federal prosecutor in Florida. - AFP