The brother of Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell said she should be released on bail from a US jail, and claimed that she was being held in "degrading" conditions that amount to torture.
Maxwell, 59, is awaiting trial on charges she recruited teenage girls for the late financier to sexually abuse. The British socialite has been in a federal lockup in Brooklyn since she was arrested last July, and she has lost two bail requests — including a $28.5 million bail release proposal in December — because she was deemed a flight risk.
Her brother Ian Maxwell told the BBC he was worried about her health and ability to prepare for her trial because of the conditions she was held in.
Ghislaine Maxwell is "in effective isolation" in a 6x9ft (1.8x2.7m) cell without natural light that contains a concrete bed and a toilet, he said. She is under around-the-clock surveillance with 10 cameras and four guards tracking her movement, and is also being deprived of sleep, he added.
