Norway’sformer high-profile diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen helped Jeffrey Epstein weave his web of dignitaries, acting as a go-between for the convicted sex offender in exchange for rewards, media has reported.

Along with his wife Mona Juul, another diplomat now caught up in the turmoil following the latest release of millions of documents from the investigation relating to Epstein, Rod-Larsen rose to fame as one of the architects of the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.

A sociologist by training, he held various roles at the United Nations: assistant secretary-general, special coordinator in the Occupied Territories, then special envoy for the Middle East.

The now 78-year-old Norwegian ended his career at the International Peace Institute (IPI).

It was in the 2010s, while heading the New York-based think tank, that he developed what appears to have been a close relationship with Epstein, who had already been convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor.

A mere mention in the files does not imply wrongdoing. The nearly three million documents released by US authorities have illuminated deeper ties than previously known between members of Norway’s elite and Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Harald Stanghelle, a political commentator for newspaper Aftenposten, believes that in Rod-Larsen’s case, “the super-diplomat was not merely a pawn in Epstein’s game but a spider at the centre of the web”.

“If you look at all the most important Norwegian political figures named in the Epstein documents, he is the key figure: no one came into contact with Epstein without going through Rod-Larsen,” he told AFP.

“He comes across as someone funnelling people to Epstein,” Stanghelle said.

Norwegian police have opened investigations into “aggravated corruption” against former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland over his dealings with Epstein — who had dubbed him “the Nobel big shot” — while he was chair of the Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe.

Source: Insider Paper