President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said "something should have been done" earlier about a French diplomat who was investigated in the US for allegedly viewing child pornography and features in the Epstein files.
According to documents consulted by AFP, Fabrice Aidan's name appears more than 200 times in exchanges with Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
The first email exchanges between Aidan and Epstein date back to 2010, when the former represented France at the United Nations.
A mere mention in the files from the investigation into the disgraced New York financier does not imply wrongdoing.
Macron, asked on Thursday how the diplomat could still be working in the service, said it was "unacceptable".
"If it's true that the administration had information several years ago, then something should have been done," he added.
Macron said he had only just become aware of the affair.
News websites 20 Minutes and Mediapart reported on Tuesday that in the US, the FBI had in 2013 opened an investigation into Aidan for viewing child pornography.
His lawyer said that Aidan denied "the entirety of the accusations made against him".
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has reported the latest findings on Aidan to the French justice system, which has opened an administrative inquiry and a disciplinary procedure.
Macron speaking to journalists in Belgium, where he was attending a summit, said he had asked Barrot to find out "how, given what was apparently known, measures weren't taken earlier", he added.
Aidan worked at the United Nations between 2006 and 2013.
After UN headquarters in New York, Aidan went on to work for the UN cultural agency UNESCO.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence.
He killed himself in prison in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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