Norway’s Parliament has launched an investigation into 11 current and former high-ranking ministers — including Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere — over alleged ties and grants linked to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
US President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice in January released millions of Epstein-related documents, revealing connections to politicians, royals and the ultra-rich around the world.
Norway, home of the Nobel Peace Prize and often a fulcrum of international diplomacy, has seen major fallout, triggering parliamentary inquiries and police investigations.
The public hearing, which began on Wednesday, comes in light of reports that the Foreign Ministry allocated over 130 million kroner ($13.5m) to the International Peace Institute between 1997 and 2018.
The United Nations-affiliated think-tank was led by Terje Rod-Larsen, a prominent Norwegian diplomat and chief architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords, from 2005 to 2020. Stoere, who has denied any wrongdoing, served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2012.
A central figure in the Middle East peace talks in the 1990s, Rod-Larsen was implicated in the files and Norwegian media investigations that exposed an alleged relationship involving illicit loans and visa fraud for sex-trafficked women. Epstein also left Rod-Larsen’s children millions of dollars in his will.
The government must explain what it is doing to restore trust in the foreign service, said Jonas Andersen Sayed, who chaired the hearing at Parliament’s Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.
“There are many people who have demonstrated very poor judgement,” Andersen Sayed told the Reuters news agency in reference to friends of Epstein.
While testifying, the prime minister maintained that he had never had any relationship with Epstein and said the “problems” were isolated lapses, not systemic to the Foreign Ministry.
“There is no reason to speak of an unhealthy culture at a large organisation just because of what one or several people may have done,” Stoere told the committee.
Stoere added that, to his knowledge, Epstein wielded no influence over Norway’s foreign policy, development aid or any other government decisions.
Erik Solheim, a former development minister who will testify on Wednesday, has said parliament’s probe is an overreaction that will throttle the foreign service as diplomats opt for needless self-restraint, harming the national interest.
Though not appearing before Parliament, a number of other prominent Norwegians with ties to Epstein — including former premier Thorbjoern Jagland, Roed-Larsen and his wife, ex-diplomat Mona Juul — are under police investigation on corruption accusations.
All three have denied any wrongdoing.
“The Epstein documents raise serious questions about abuse of office, a culture of accountability failures and poor management of development aid funds,” said Andersen Sayed.
“The issue concerns public trust in the entire system. It is essential that all the facts are brought to light, that accountability is established and that the necessary reforms are implemented,” he said.
Parliament has also set up an independent inquiry tasked with a much broader examination of the case, which is due to submit its final report by January 31, 2028.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
