Ghislaine Maxwell's brother insists she should be treated as 'presumed innocent': 'She is not Epstein'

 The brother of Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged co-conspirator of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said his sister is being subjected to what he claims is "monstrous" treatment in a federal detention center where she awaits trial on charges of aiding Epstein's abuse of underage girls.

"It's a really ghastly experience. She's lost 20 pounds, she's losing her hair, she can't concentrate," Ian Maxwell, 64, told "Good Morning America" in an exclusive television interview. "She has a flashlight shone in her cell every 15 minutes during the night. So, she has no sleep of any real quality," he said.

Ian Maxwell's comments come as his youngest sister awaits a federal judge's decision on her third attempt to be granted bail ahead of her July trial.

The previous two attempts were rejected after the court deemed Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, a flight risk because of the seriousness of the charges, her substantial wealth and international ties.

Her latest proposal for pre-trial release, which prosecutors and the alleged victims oppose, includes an offer to place her assets of more than $20 million under the control of a monitor and to renounce her citizenship in France, where she was born, and in England, where she was raised.

"Ghislaine is an American," her brother said. "She's never been a flight risk. In the year or so between when Epstein died and when she was arrested, she was in the United States all the time. She was not running away from law enforcement."

Upon Epstein's arrest in July 2019, prosecutors vowed to continue investigating his alleged co-conspirators. After his death in prison a month later, the attention of the authorities, alleged victims and the media quickly focused on Ghislaine Maxwell, who was once a fixture on the social scene in New York with a rolodex of the rich, powerful, and politically connected. She has also faced civil lawsuits, both before and after Epstein's arrest, from alleged victims of Epstein who accused her of facilitating their abuse -- allegations she has long denied.

She retreated from public life after Epstein's death, in an effort, her brother said, to protect her family from what he called a "lynch mob" mentality in the media.

"The real problem is that the media frenzy about her, which had shifted from Epstein onto her, drove her absolutely mad," he said. "She's married, has a husband. And she has two stepchildren. And she couldn't allow the terrible frenzy of the media to be brought down on their heads."