Man who looks like Jeffrey Epstein says his life is a misery
A man with a resemblance to Jeffrey Epstein says his life has been made a misery because people repeatedly mistake him for the paedophile.
Turkish man Rifat Ozdemir, 55, has spoken out after a series of insulting comments, saying he looks like Jeffrey Epstein in Kayseri, central Turkey.
He described himself as an ordinary, hard-working man and said he was shocked when he became the target of uncomfortable stares and remarks in public.
People began saying he resembled the disgraced American billionaire, who was jailed on child sexual abuse charges and was later found dead in prison.
Rifat said the resemblance was first pointed out by his nephew, who told him he looked like Epstein – a name he said he did not recognise at the time.
After researching who Epstein was through news reports and social media, Rifat said he was deeply upset and did not want to be associated with him in any way.
He says people gave him harsh and judgmental looks as he walked down the street, adding that hearing people say ‘he looks like Epstein’ left him distressed and uncomfortable.
Rifat said being compared to such a figure had negatively affected his daily life and state of mind.
In an effort to distance himself from the resemblance, he said he planned to change his hairstyle and grow a beard, despite never having worn one before.
Rifat said he would make every possible change to his appearance to avoid being associated with Epstein, even though he believed his facial lines and expressions closely resembled his.
He appealed to the public in a statement over the weekend not to compare him to Epstein, stressing that he had no connection to him and adding that such figures did not come from Kayseri.
Pressure is still mounting for the US to release more of the files – the current release is just around half of what the DOJ has in its possession.
Initial estimates believe it could take eight years to review and disclose the remaining files, even with hundreds of attorneys working on the release.
‘While the commitment of Department personnel to this effort has been substantial in breadth and impressive in effort, substantial work remains to be done,’ the department said.
If that timeline proves to be true, the final files won’t be released until well after Donald Trump’s second term in office is over.
The recent batch of files contained shocking evidence of sex trafficking of underage girls and other crimes.
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