Pressure on former French Culture Minister Jacques Lange to resign as president of the Arab World Institute intensified on Friday over his links to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after the Foreign Ministry summoned him for talks, Reuters reported.
Lang said earlier this week that he was unaware of Epstein's 2008 conviction for sex offences when they met around 2012, describing the financier as an acquaintance interested in art and film, who he was introduced to by American director Woody Allen.
The 86-year-old former minister, who has headed the Arab World Institute since 2013, has not been charged with any crime. Lang told BFMTV on Wednesday that Epstein was not his friend, that he knew little about him, but that he saw him as someone “passionately interested in art, culture and film.”
However, documents released last week by the US Department of Justice call into question Lang's claim about the nature of his relationship with Epstein.
The documents show that Epstein and Lang exchanged occasional correspondence between 2012 and Epstein's death by suicide in prison in 2019.
In an email Lang sent to Epstein on April 7, 2017, nearly a decade after the financier was convicted of pimping a minor, he thanked him for a “wonderful time” the previous day.
“Your friendship, incredible plane (sic) and extraordinary generosity have truly touched us,” Lang wrote.
Lang, who served as Minister of Culture and Education multiple times between 1981 and 2002, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lang invited to "think about the institution"
A source close to President Emmanuel Macron said the presidency and the prime minister’s office had asked the relevant ministers to call Lang and encourage him to “reflect on the institution.” The foreign ministry said it had invited Lang to a meeting on Sunday.
The Arab World Institute is a cultural and research institution that promotes understanding of the Arab world, located in Paris, on the banks of the Seine River.
Jacques Lang's name appears more than 600 times in Epstein's documents, a Reuters analysis shows.
"I'm not afraid of anything and I'm completely clean," Lang told French radio RTL on Wednesday.
The release of these documents has increased scrutiny of Epstein's global connections with public figures, including Britain's Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles, and Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States.
On Monday, Lang's daughter Caroline resigned as president of the French Federation of Independent Producers, after her ties to Epstein also surfaced.
Both Lang and his daughter deny any wrongdoing, and Caroline told BFMTV on Thursday that she only learned about Epstein's 2008 conviction in 2014, when he himself told her to look him up on Google.
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