Norway’s former prime minister in hospital following Epstein files disclosures

Norway’s former prime minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been admitted to hospital due to the stress caused by the Epstein scandal, the NTB news agency and others cited his lawyer as saying on Tuesday.Jagland is one of the most prominent figures to have been implicated by the release of files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Norwegian authorities are investigating allegations of serious corruption.The former top politician is said to have stayed at Epstein’s apartments in Paris and New York and holidayed at his estate in Palm Beach in the US state of Florida during his time as secretary general of the Council of Europe, a human rights organisation. Jagland has denied wrongdoing and says he never visited Epstein’s private island.Epstein, a US multimillionaire who died in custody in 2019, had run an abuse ring for years with a still-unknown number of victims, some of whom were minors.Jagland’s lawyer stated that his client was cooperating with the investigating authorities, but that he did not believe there were grounds for criminal prosecution.