By Jasper Ward
Feb 17 (Reuters) - Millions of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggest the existence of a "global criminal enterprise" that carried out acts meeting the legal threshold of crimes against humanity, according to a panel of independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The experts said crimes outlined in documents released by the U.S. Justice Department were committed against a backdrop of supremacist beliefs, racism, corruption and extreme misogyny.
The crimes, they said, showed a commodification and dehumanization of women and girls.
"So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity," the experts said in a statement.
The experts said the allegations contained in the files require an independent, thorough and impartial investigation, and said inquiries should also be launched into how it was possible for such crimes to be committed for so long.
The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A law, approved by Congress with broad bipartisan support in November, requires all Epstein-related files to be made public.
The U.N. experts raised concerns about "serious compliance failures and botched redactions" that exposed sensitive victim information. More than 1,200 victims were identified in the documents that have been released so far.
"The reluctance to fully disclose information or broaden investigations, has left many survivors feeling retraumatized and subjected to what they describe as 'institutional gaslighting,'" the experts said.
The Justice Department's release of documents has revealed Epstein's ties to many prominent people in politics, finance, academia and business - both before and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges, including soliciting an underage girl.
He was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019 after being arrested again on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. His death was ruled a suicide.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols and Daniel Wallis)
