Pal Lonseth, chief of the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit, says Jagland suspected of ‘aggravated corruption’.Listen to this articleListen to this article | 3 minsinfoPublished On 12 Feb 202612 Feb 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2ShareNorwegian police say that they had conducted searches of properties owned by former Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as part of a corruption investigation into his connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The probe was initiated after documents released by the US Department of Justice in January indicated that Jagland and/or members of his family may have stayed at or vacationed at Epstein’s residences between 2011 and 2018, the AFP news agency reported.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listNorwegian television footage showed investigators carrying several boxes from Jagland’s apartment in Oslo during the searches on Thursday.Jagland, 74, served as Norway’s prime minister from 1996 to 1997 and during the period mentioned in the files, he was serving as chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and as secretary-general of the Council of Europe.In the documents released by the US Justice Department, Epstein referred to him as “the Nobel big shot”, the AFP news agency reported.Pal Lonseth, chief of the specialised Okokrim economic crimes unit, said that Jagland’s residence in Oslo had been searched and that he was now formally suspected of “aggravated corruption”.His lawyer, Anders Brosveet, confirmed the searches and stated that they were standard procedure in these types of investigations.“Jagland wishes to contribute to ensuring that the case is thoroughly clarified, and the next step is that he will appear for questioning by Okokrim – as he himself has stated he wants,” Brosveet said.The raids were enabled by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers by waiving Jagland’s diplomatic immunity on Wednesday, following a request from Norwegian authorities. Police told the council in the request that they are investigating whether the benefits Jagland may have received could amount to “passive bribery”. Advertisement Okokrim cited repeated instances, between 2011 and 2018, when Jagland and/or members of his family made use of Epstein’s …
