Ghislaine Maxwell's family is petitioning the United Nations to try and get her released from jail as she awaits her imminent sex trafficking trial, New York Post reports.
Following complaints by Maxwell and her lawyers about the poor conditions of her New York jail cell, the 59-year-old has repeatedly been denied bail.
Her siblings - three sisters, and three brothers - appointed international criminal lawyers François Zimeray and Jessica Finelle to file a legal claim with the UN, according to New York Post, which reviewed a copy of the petition.
According to the attorneys, since she has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, Maxwell has been subjected to conditions that are "abnormally rigorous."
The legal claim is urging the UN to call on the US government to release Maxwell and to launch an investigation into her "arbitrary detention."
Maxwell is accused of helping billionaire financier Epstein abuse underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She denies all charges against her and her trial is scheduled to begin next week.
The petition states: "She is awakened constantly at night and has been subjected, for the 500+ days of her detention, to a ‘suicide watch’ – completely inappropriate in the case of a non-suicidal person – involving a flashlight shone every 15 minutes on her face to check that she is breathing, literally preventing her from sleeping."
The filing adds that Epstein's former girlfriend was allegedly touched inappropriately by jail staff during searches. It also speculates Maxwell will be unable to have a fair trial.
It states: "Ghislaine Maxwell has been the subject of sustained and overwhelming media coverage, aimed at presenting her as the accomplice to the crimes alleged against Jeffrey Epstein, to the point that the certainty of her guilt is seen as clear-cut before any trial has taken place."
It continues: "US Justice has not sought to resist or counter the extreme emotion of public opinion in this case as is its duty, and nor has it seized each and every opportunity to remind everyone that Ms Maxwell is presumed innocent or to enable her to respond and prepare for her trial freely and with dignity."
Since she was arrested in July 2020 at her New Hampshire home, she has denied any involvement in the incidents of sex trafficking that her now-deceased ex-partner, Epstein, was accused of.
Maxwell has repeatedly been denied bail due to concerns that she might flee and refuse to cooperate with authorities.
Epstein committed suicide by hanging in his jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited, also without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.