Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland is facing a police investigation over alleged corruption in relation to his contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Økokrim has now opened an investigation into former Prime Minister, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland on suspicion of aggravated corruption,” Økokrim, Norway’s central authority for fighting economic and environmental crimes, announced in a press release late Monday.
“We consider there are reasonable grounds for investigation, given that he held the positions of chair of the Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of Europe during the period covered by the released documents,” said Pål K. Lønseth, director of Økokrim.
It was first reported in November 2025 that Epstein had chatted to the then-Council of Europe chief Jagland in 2018 about whether he could put him in touch with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Jagland replied that he would meet Lavrov’s assistant the following day and would suggest it. It remains unclear whether any meeting facilitated by Jagland took place.
Jagland’s name was featured again in the latest wave of documents released last week. In one email from 2012, he informs Epstein about “extraordinary young girls” in Albania, while in another one from 2013, he says “we have seen pictures of your island and we would be delighted to visit it.” Jagland told the Norwegian newspaper VG he had never been to the Epstein island.
The police said it will investigate whether Jagland received “any gifts, travels or loans in connection with his position.”
Jagland’s lawyer Anders Brosveet told VG he welcomed the opening of the investigation.
“We are calmly awaiting the outcome. Above all, it is good for Jagland to get an authoritative clarification from Økokrim, rather than having the entire press pack conducting their own little private investigations,” Brosveet said.
Jagland enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution as a former head of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe (CoE), the continent’s leading human rights organization that oversees the European Court of Human Rights. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said Tuesday he would ask the CoE to revoke Jagland’s immunity.
The CoE’s media department told POLITICO in a statement that it had received the request and it will examine it, adding that it had conducted its own internal administrative inquiry into the matter in December and January.
“We have been able to establish that Mr Epstein on at least on two occasions attended events at the Secretary General’s official residence. We have no indication that this involved official Council of Europe business with Mr Epstein and there are no traces of these private meetings in Mr Jagland’s official diary at the time,” it said.
“We have further established that on one occasion, during an official visit to New York in 2018, Mr Jagland stayed in private premises, which according to the media articles could be linked to Mr Epstein. We have also established that on two occasions, in 2015 and 2018, he stayed in private premises in Paris that media reports link to Mr Epstein. We have not found records showing he visited Mr Epstein’s properties in an official capacity,” it added.