Maxwell's Relatives Appeal to UN for Her Release From Jail as Trial Date Looms

The former British socialite, who is accused of procuring underage girls for late financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, is facing trial next week.

Ghislaine Maxwell's three sisters and three brothers have filed a petition to the United Nations asking for her release from jail, after at least four failed bail applications, the New York Post reported.

The petition, on behalf of Maxwell's siblings, was submitted to the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention by international criminal lawyers François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle, the newspaper added.

According to the lawyers, conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn where Maxwell is being held are "abnormally rigorous” and therefore unlawful and discriminatory.

The authors of the petition expect the UN to call on the US government to release Maxwell pending trial and to initiate an independent investigation into her “arbitrary detention.”

The 59-year-old former British socialite is facing trial next week after being charged earlier this year with procuring underage girls for her ex-partner, late financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, from 1994 through 2004. She pleads not guilty on all charges. Her defence insists that Maxwell was made a scapegoat for Epstein who committed suicide in his cell in 2019.