The ex-agent of French models Jean-Luc Brunel, a relative of the deceased American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted in an investigation in Paris for rape and sexual assault, filed a complaint Friday September 24 for violation of the secrecy of the investigation, according to his lawyers.
Read also Epstein case: former model agent Jean-Luc Brunel indicted again
"
These permanent leaks since the opening of the investigation have resulted in the dissemination of false information and the relay of slanderous accusations
", underline Me Mathias Chichportich and Me Marianne Abgrall in a press release sent to AFP.
The two councils therefore lodged a complaint with the Paris prosecutor for "
violation of the secrecy of the investigation, the investigation
" and "
concealment
" of this offense.
"No complaints" in the United States
"
For more than two years now, Mr. Jean-Luc Brunel has not ceased to be presented publicly as
"
the tout
"
of the American businessman Jeffrey Epstein
", they observe, considering that this statement was "
factually and judicially false
”.
Read alsoThe Jeffrey Epstein affair will cause the downfall of Prince Andrew?
The lawyers point out that Brunel was placed in December 2020 under the status of assisted witness for "
trafficking in human beings aggravated to the prejudice of underage victims for the purposes of sexual exploitation
".
This status is less incriminating than that of indicted.
"
After more than two years of investigations, the investigating judges therefore believe that there is no serious or concordant evidence that our client has fed any criminal network,
" they say.
"
In the United States, he is not the subject of any complaint and has never even been summoned by American justice
," they add.
Their client "wrongly accused"
The ex-agent, on the other hand, was also indicted in December 2020 for "
rape of a minor over 15 years old
" and "
sexual harassment
".
He "
was imprisoned on the basis of the statements of Mrs. Virginia Roberts
", affirm Mr. Chichportich and Mr. Abgrall.
"
Since then, it has been proved that she lied several times before the investigation services
", they continue.
Read also Epstein case: accused of sexual assault, Prince Andrew challenges the jurisdiction of New York
"
Confronted with her lies, she changed versions on essential points of these accusations and today admits having wrongly accused our client on the only facts that she was able to date and locate precisely
", they say. .
Brunel was indicted a second time for rape of a minor over 15 years old last June, after hearing a model who accuses him of having raped her in the late 1990s when she was 17 years old according to the Parisian.
What he disputes.
For his lawyers, the charges against him "
are based on media rumors alone and are not supported by any evidence
."
The defense of the accusers contests
This complaint for violation of the secrecy of the investigation "
is an opportunity for Jean-Luc Brunel to divert the attention of the media on the criminal accusations made to him, and to forget the reality of the case
", argued for her part Anne-Claire Le Jeune, lawyer for several of her accusers. For her, the ex-agent was indeed indicted "
on the basis of serious or consistent clues and not following alleged media rumors
".
The former modeling agent, whose name is mentioned in the investigation opened in the United States into the sex scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein, found dead in his cell in August 2019, was arrested at Charles-de-Gaulle airport as he was about to take a flight to Dakar.
Billionaire financier, Mr. Epstein was indicted in July 2019 in the United States for having organized, between 2002 and 2005, a network of young girls that he allegedly sexually exploited.