A Colombian court has ordered immigration authorities to release information about trips to the South American country by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, it emerged Monday.
Former Colombian president Andres Pastrana, who governed from 1998 to 2002, is mentioned several times in files released by the US Justice Department regarding Epstein’s crimes.
He was a passenger on Epstein’s private plane in 2003 and appears in emails that suggest a close relationship with both Epstein and Maxwell.
Pastrana also appears in a photograph with Maxwell from 2002, both wearing Colombian Air Force uniforms.
In declassified emails she claimed to have flown a Blackhawk military helicopter in Colombia and to have fired from the air at a guerrilla group in the Amazon.
The Administrative Court of Cundinamarca department in central Colombia ordered the immigration authority, Migracion Colombia, to make public details about Epstein and Maxwell’s visits to the country.
The agency had previously refused journalists’ requests for information, citing “national security and personal data protection reasons.”
The court however ruled that the information was “of high public interest” and involved an issue that merited “citizen oversight.”
Pastrana acknowledges having met with Epstein and Maxwell on several occasions but insists that the meetings were formal in nature.
He says that Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the United States for her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, took a brief flight in Colombia but denies that she carried out attacks from the aircraft.
He insists that he never visited Epstein’s infamous private island in the Caribbean, where the magnate allegedly trafficked women and minors, making them available to businessmen and political figures.
Epstein had longstanding ties to the world’s political and business elite. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
He died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.
His death was ruled a suicide, but numerous security lapses at the jail and missing CCTV footage have led to persistent doubts about the official account.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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