Epstein Files Suggest ‘Torture, Murder and Other Crimes Against Humanity’

The abuses detailed in millions of recently released files relating to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein could amount to crimes against humanity, a panel of independent experts appointed by the UN human rights council has warned. 

The files contain evidence of some of the “gravest crimes under international law” including sexual slavery, reproductive violence, enforced disappearances, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment and femicide, the experts said in a statement earlier this week.

There is “disturbing and credible evidence” of a possible “global criminal enterprise involving systematic sexual abuse,” they added. 

“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,” they said. 

“These crimes were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption, extreme misogyny, and the commodification and dehumanisation of women and girls from different parts of the world,” they added.

The UN panel called for independent and impartial investigations into the allegations contained in the files, adding that it was not enough for powerful people to resign.

“Resignations of implicated individuals alone are not an adequate substitute for criminal accountability,” they said. “It is imperative that governments act decisively to hold perpetrators accountable. No one is too wealthy or too powerful to be above the law.”