Former French minister Lang summoned over Epstein links.

Pressure rose on Friday on former French culture minister Jack Lang to resign as president of the Arab World Institute over his ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after he was summoned to the foreign ministry to discuss the matter.



Lang said earlier this week he had been unaware of Epstein's 2008 sex-offence conviction when they met in around 2012, describing the financier as an acquaintance interested in art and cinema introduced to him by U.S. film-maker Woody Allen.



The 86-year-old former minister, head of the Arab World Institute since 2013, has not been accused of wrongdoing. Lang told BFMTV on Wednesday that Epstein was not a friend, that he knew little about the convicted sex offender, but had found him to be "passionate about art, culture and cinema."



But files released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week raise questions about Lang's characterisation of his relationship with Epstein.



They show Epstein and Lang corresponding intermittently between 2012 and the financier's 2019 death by suicide in jail.