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Washington, DC \u2013<\/strong> The arrest of former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has sparked renewed calls for accountability for Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s crimes and proper investigations into the late sex offender\u2019s networks in the United States and across the world.<\/p>\n Police in the United Kingdom detained the ex-prince, brother of King Charles, on Thursday, with authorities saying that they had opened an investigation into possible misconduct in public office without naming Mountbatten-Windsor.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Reem Alsalem, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the arrest sends \u201can important message that nobody is above the law, irrespective of your wealth, your connections \u2013 even if you\u2019re royalty\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s important that we examine the involvement of anyone that has enabled, facilitated, the crimes committed by the Epstein criminal enterprise,\u201d Alsalem told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n She stressed the need for independent investigations into individuals and institutions who may have been involved in Epstein\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest came weeks after the latest release of US government documents related to the sex abuse case, which showed deep ties between the former duke of York and Epstein.<\/p>\n Some exchanges suggested that Mountbatten-Windsor, who previously served as the UK\u2019s trade envoy, shared government information with Epstein.<\/p>\n The former royal was released later on Thursday.<\/p>\n Millions of files related to Epstein have been released by the US government over the past two months after Congress passed a law compelling the administration of President Donald Trump to make the documents public.<\/p>\n The files, which included emails and text messages, showed that the disgraced financier, whom authorities say died of suicide while in jail in 2019, maintained friendships and business relations with rich and\u00a0powerful people across the world.<\/p>\n Some documents and photos suggested that some of Epstein\u2019s associates participated in, or at least were aware of, his sex abuse ring.<\/p>\n One picture showed Mountbatten-Windsor crouched over a female victim who was lying flat on the floor.<\/p>\n The former prince has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein\u2019s sex crimes.<\/p>\n On Thursday, US Congressman Thomas Massie, one of the leading legislators who pushed for the release of the files, called on FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi to act and bring people involved in Epstein\u2019s sex abuse to justice.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we need JUSTICE in the United States,\u201d Massie said, commenting on the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor.<\/p>\n The Republican congressman shared a video of comments he made on the House floor last year during a debate on the Epstein files bill.<\/p>\n \u201cHow will we know if this bill has been successful? We will know when there are men \u2013 rich men \u2013 in handcuffs being perp-walked to the jail,\u201d Massie said in his speech. \u201cAnd until then, this is still a cover-up.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, Epstein built a network of hundreds of girls and young women for sexual exploitation. Many of the victims were made to travel around with him and stay at his private island in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n But the Trump administration has all but ruled out further charges in the case.<\/p>\n Last year, before the release of the documents, the US Department of Justice denied that Epstein had a \u201cclient list\u201d of powerful people to whom he trafficked his sex abuse victims.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche sparked outrage when he appeared to dismiss calls for prosecuting Epstein\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will always investigate any evidence of misconduct. But as you know, it is not a crime to party with Mr Epstein,\u201d he told Fox News. \u201cAnd so, as horrible as it is, it is not a crime to email with Mr Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n Alsalem, the UN expert, said Blanche\u2019s comments were \u201cdismissive\u201d of the victims and \u201cthe horrific experiences\u201d they endured.<\/p>\n She noted that it had been known that Epstein was convicted of sex abuse crimes in 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cIn light of everything that we know and was known even back then by those who engaged with him, nobody can claim unawareness,\u201d Alsalem told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cBut indeed, at the same time, everybody accused should still benefit from a fair and impartial trial, but that\u2019s why we have to get to that impartial and fair trial, and then they can also explain themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Epstein was given what is widely seen as a lenient plea deal during his first conviction, where he admitted to solicitation of prostitution with a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in jail that included work release privileges.<\/p>\n He was arrested and charged again in 2019 after media reports scrutinised the 2008 federal prosecution against him, which was led by Alexander Acosta, who served as labour secretary in the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n Trump himself has been accused of ties to Epstein, but the US president said that he only knew the late sex offender as a neighbour in Palm Beach, Florida, and eventually dissociated with him because he was a \u201ccreep\u201d.<\/p>\n Last year, The Wall Street Journal released what it said was a sexually suggestive birthday card in the shape of a nude woman sent by Trump to Epstein. The US president denied sending the letter and filed a lawsuit against the newspaper over the allegation.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a Prince can be held accountable, so can a President,\u201d Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury wrote on X after Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, called the arrest of the former British royal an \u201cenormous step forward\u201d towards accountability.<\/p>\n \u201cOversight Democrats called for Mountbatten-Windsor to come clean about his ties to Epstein months ago, and Britain is now holding him accountable with this arrest,\u201d Garcia said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cNow it\u2019s time for the United States to end this White House cover-up. President Trump and his Epstein Administration are not above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n In a Reuters\/Ipsos poll released earlier this week, a majority of US respondents \u2013 53 percent \u2013 agreed that the Epstein files have lowered their \u201ctrust in the country\u2019s political and business leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n And 69 percent said their views were captured by the statement that the files \u201cshow that powerful people in the US are rarely held accountable for their actions\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s allies often note that the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden had four years to release the Epstein files, but chose not to do so.<\/p>\n Some powerful Democratic politicians and donors, including former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, also had ties to Epstein.<\/p>\n The issue goes beyond the US. The Epstein files have rocked British politics and led to calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who appointed Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n France and Norway have also opened probes into corruption and sex abuse allegations related to Epstein.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, UN experts, including Alsalem, found that Epstein\u2019s crimes \u201creasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n Alsalem told Al Jazeera that there needs to be an \u201cindependent, impartial investigation that spans all the countries and all individuals\u201d reported to be involved in Epstein\u2019s network.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only that, we have to also examine the architecture of the alleged enterprise \u2013 the organisational structure,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to shift this investigation from looking at individual crimes, isolated criminal transactions, to realising that we\u2019re talking about an organised attack directed against vulnerable women and children, including girls.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Washington, DC \u2013 The arrest of former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has sparked renewed calls for accountability for Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s crimes and proper investigations into the late sex offender\u2019s networks in the United States and across the world. Police in the United Kingdom detained the ex-prince, brother of King Charles, on Thursday, with authorities saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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