The son of the diplomat couple Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen has been found dead in Oslo. In an op-ed sent to VG, the family’s lawyers direct searing criticism at the months of media coverage surrounding the parents’ Epstein case.

The couple’s 25-year-old son was found dead on Wednesday. This is confirmed by the lawyers Thomas Skjelbred and John Christian Elden in an op-ed sent to VG on Thursday. According to the lawyers, the son took his own life.

VG reported the death on Thursday afternoon, after what the newspaper describes as “participation from next of kin and their lawyer ahead of publication”.

In the op-ed, the lawyers link the tragedy directly to the media coverage the parents have been facing since Økokrim opened an investigation against them in February:

“It stands in the shadow of months of a public spotlight that has long since ceased to be critical, and which instead has become suspicious, speculative and, at times, boundless,” they write.

At the same time, the lawyers emphasise that it is “both irresponsible and undignified” to speculate about causal connections, and remind readers that “suicide is always complex”.

Rebukes the press

Skjelbred and Elden devote large parts of the op-ed to a principled criticism of the Norwegian press:

“It is legitimate to put critical questions to power. It is necessary in a democracy. But there is a point at which criticism slides into character assassination, where curiosity becomes speculation, and where the public’s right to access is taken as support for something far more problematic: a collective lack of empathy.”

They further write that when “people’s life’s work is reduced to headlines and insinuations”, the result is “a form of public punishment, without legal certainty and without limits”.

Already early in February, Elden asked the media for “calm and human consideration”, and pointed particularly to the burden on the couple’s children – which he stressed they “have neither been part of nor deserved”.

Investigated for corruption

Mona Juul and Terje Rød-Larsen have been central figures in Norwegian foreign policy for three decades, among other things through the Oslo process between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s. Rød-Larsen has been a cabinet minister and held top positions in the UN, while Juul has been Norway’s UN ambassador.

Since February, Økokrim has been investigating the couple for possible corruption linked to the contact Rød-Larsen had with the American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2010 to 2019. Both deny criminal guilt.

Part of the investigation concerns gifts and services that are said to have gone to the couple’s two children. According to Epstein’s will, the children were favoured with ten million dollars shortly before he died in 2019. The money has never been paid out, and the family has said that they became aware of the will through the media.

The children have never been charged or suspected of any criminal offence.

Ask for calm

The lawyers conclude the op-ed with an appeal on behalf of the parents:

“The parents now need calm. Calm to grieve. Calm to take care of themselves. Calm to take care of those closest to them who remain.”