French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel found dead in prison cell

French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a longtime associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been found dead in his prison cell, a spokesperson for the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Brunel was found alone, hanged with bedsheets, in his jail cell at the Santé prison in the French capital at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, the prosecutor's office told CNN. It would not comment on whether Brunel killed himself, adding an investigation into the cause of death has been opened, "as it is systematically done in these cases," entrusted to the French judicial police.

Brunel's French lawyers told CNN their client's "decision was not guided by guilt, but by a sense of injustice."