- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
Epstein ally found dead in French prison: prosecutors
French model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of disgraced US billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his Paris prison cell, prosecutors said Saturday, in an echo of the jail suicide of his friend.
Epstein, arrested in July 2019 on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex, was found hanged in his New York jail cell the following month while awaiting trial over abuses against under-age women.
His former associate Brunel, in his mid-70s, had been charged with the rape of minors and held in prison since December 2020.
He was briefly freed in late 2021 but then re-incarcerated on a Paris court of appeal ruling.
A source close to the investigation told AFP Brunel had been found dead overnight Friday to Saturday in the Prison de la Sante. Paris prosecutors later confirmed he had died.
The source said he had been found hanged, but this was not confirmed by prosecutors.
Police are now investigating the cause of death, added the source, asking not to be named.
Brunel's death means his case is closed, unless other suspects are implicated in the same case in the future.
- 'Leaving behind secrets' -
Brunel had denied the charges. He was first detained in December 2020 at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
His lawyers, Mathias Chichportich, Marianne Abgrall and Christophe Ingrain, said his apparent suicide was "not guided by guilt but a profound sense of injustice".
"His tragedy is that of a 75-year-old man crushed by a media-judicial system," they said in a statement.
"Brunel had always maintained his innocence and had intensified his efforts to prove it."
Allegations from women who say they were abused in France in the Epstein case prompted French prosecutors to open their own investigation.
That probe focused on Brunel, who was accused in US court documents of rape and of procuring young girls for his friend.
Anne-Claire Le Jeune, lawyer for the plaintiffs, expressed "frustration and bitterness over not being able to obtain justice, just as for the victims of Epstein".
"It took so much courage to be able to speak up, to be heard by the police and the investigating judges. It's quite terrible for the victims", she said.
She added that the victims had the feeling Brunel was "leaving behind a number of secrets".
- Prince's settlement -
Brunel began his career as a model scout and in 1978 was involved in setting up the prestigious Karin Models agency.
He then moved to the United States where he co-founded the Miami-based agency MC2.
In US court documents, Virginia Giuffre, a key plaintiff against Epstein, accused him of using her as a "sex slave" and said she had been forced to have sex with well-known politicians and businessmen, including Brunel.
She also alleged Brunel would bring girls as young as 12 to the United States and pass them on to friends, including Epstein.
Giuffre on Saturday responded to news of Brunel's death on Twitter.
"The suicide of Jean-Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter," she wrote.
"I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to face him in a final trial to hold him accountable, but gratified that I was able to testify in person last year to keep him in prison."
Brunel's death comes days after Queen Elizabeth II's second son Prince Andrew settled the lawsuit brought by Giuffre, sparing him the public humiliation of a trial.
Giuffre has said she had sex with Andrew when she was 17 and a minor under US law, after meeting him through Epstein.
The prince, 61, has not been criminally charged and has denied the allegations.
In December, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of Epstein and Prince Andrew, was convicted in the United States of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
D.Sawyer--AMWN