The Council of Europe has agreed to remove the diplomatic immunity granted to Thorbjoern Jagland, clearing the way for Norwegian police to investigate the former secretary general’s newly uncovered relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Reuters reported. 

Jagland, a former prime minister and foreign minister of Norway and a former chair of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, led the Council of Europe as secretary general from 2009 to 2019. Norwegian authorities will seek to determine whether he accepted gifts, travel arrangements, loans, or other benefits that could have served as bribes from the now deceased sex trafficker, Reuters said. 

Newly disclosed emails between Jagland and Epstein show that Jagland, while leading the Council of Europe, made detailed plans in 2014 with Epstein’s assistants to visit the American financier in Palm Beach and the Caribbean island he owned, according to Reuters. 

The emails were sent some six years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. From that year on, Epstein was a registered sex offender. 

Jagland has denied ever visiting Epstein’s island, according to the report. 

The news agency also reported that Jagland sought Epstein’s help in financing an apartment in Oslo in an email in 2014, and that emails from 2018 show Epstein asking Jagland to arrange a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while claiming he had “insights” to offer Russian President Vladimir Putin. Jagland promised to raise the request with Lavrov’s assistant, Reuters said.

The Council of Europe, which advocates for human rights and oversees the anti-money-laundering body MONEYVAL, is Europe’s oldest intergovernmental organization. 

Read more at Reuters