U.N. experts say Epstein files may meet crimes against humanity threshold, citing a “global criminal enterprise” and systemic abuse.
Panel calls for independent investigation, flags redaction failures that exposed victim data; over 1,200 victims identified.
Files reveal ties to powerful figures, with survivors alleging retraumatization and institutional failure.
A panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council has said that newly released documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case point to what could amount to a “global criminal enterprise”, with some of the alleged acts potentially meeting the legal definition of crimes against humanity.
A Reuters report, citing a statement from the U.N. experts, noted that the scale and systematic nature of the abuse described in files made public by the U.S. Justice Department indicate atrocities carried out across borders and over several years. The experts said the crimes occurred within a broader environment shaped by supremacist ideologies, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny, reflecting what they described as the commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls.
“So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity,” the panel said.
The experts called for an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the allegations contained in the documents. They also urged scrutiny into how such crimes were able to continue for so long without effective intervention.
The U.N. panel further expressed concern over what it described as “serious compliance failures and botched redactions” in the released material, which reportedly exposed sensitive victim information. More than 1,200 victims have been identified in documents made public so far.
“The reluctance to fully disclose information or broaden investigations has left many survivors feeling retraumatized and subjected to what they describe as ‘institutional gaslighting,’” the experts said.
The document release has also shed light on Epstein’s associations with prominent figures in politics, finance, academia and business, both before and after his 2008 guilty plea to prostitution-related charges, including soliciting a minor.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking minors and was later found dead in his jail cell. Authorities ruled his death a suicide.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
