French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime affiliate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been discovered useless in his jail cell, a spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor's workplace mentioned.
Mr Brunel was discovered alone, hanged with bedsheets, in his jail cell on the Santé jail within the French capital at round 1.30am native time on Saturday, the prosecutor's workplace advised CNN. It could not touch upon whether or not Mr Brunel killed himself, including an investigation into the reason for loss of life has been opened, "as it's systematically executed in these instances," entrusted to the French judicial police.
Mr Brunel's French attorneys advised CNN their shopper's "determination was not guided by guilt, however by a way of injustice."
"Jean-Luc Brunel has by no means stopped claiming his innocence. He has multiplied his efforts to show it. A decide had launched him just a few months in the past, after which he was re-incarcerated in undignified circumstances," an announcement despatched to CNN by his attorneys Mathias Chichportich, Marianne Abgrall and Christophe Ingrain learn.
Accused of rape by a number of former high fashions, which he denied, the 75-year-old was put underneath formal investigation in France in late June 2021 for "rape of a minor over 15," the prosecutor's workplace confirmed.
Mr Brunel was arrested at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in December 2020 on counts of "rape and sexual assault, rape and sexual assault on a minor underneath 15, rape and sexual assault on a minor over 15, sexual harassment, felony associations and human trafficking to the detriment of minor victims for the needs of sexual exploitation."
He was launched underneath judicial supervision for just a few days in November 2021, earlier than being returned to jail by determination of the Paris Courtroom of Appeals. He appealed the choice because the prosecution ready its case.
Mr Brunel's arrest was a part of a probe launched in 2019 by French prosecutors, concentrating on "acts of sexual nature more likely to have been dedicated by Jeffrey Epstein and potential accomplices," based mostly on checks and cross-checks carried out on data offered to the Paris public prosecutor's workplace and exchanges with US authorities.
Mr Epstein was discovered useless in his jail cell in the US on August 10, 2019. He was awaiting trial on the Metropolitan Correctional Heart in Manhattan, after pleaded not responsible to federal costs accusing him of working a intercourse trafficking ring from 2002 to 2005 at his Manhattan mansion and his Palm Seaside property, and allegedly paying ladies as younger as 14 for intercourse.
A medical expert dominated his loss of life was suicide by hanging.