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GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief on Friday slammed Britain’s ban on activist group Palestine Action as a “disturbing” misuse of UK counter-terrorism legislation and urged the government to rescind its move.

“The decision appears disproportionate and unnecessary,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

The ban, introduced under Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, took effect earlier this month after activists from the group broke into an air force base in southern England.

Two aircraft were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated £7.0 million ($9.55 million) in damage.

Turk’s statement said the ban raised “serious concerns that counter-terrorism laws are being applied to conduct that is not terrorist in nature, and risks hindering the legitimate exercise of fundamental freedoms across the UK.”

He stressed: “According to international standards, terrorist acts should be confined to criminal acts intended to cause death or serious injury or to the taking of hostages, for purpose of intimidating a population or to compel a government to take a certain action or not.”

But the ban among other things makes it a criminal offense to be a member of Palestine Action, to express support for the group or wear items of clothing that would arouse “reasonable suspicion” that the person is a member or supporter of the group, Turk pointed out.

UK police have arrested at least 200 people during protests, many of them peaceful, over the ban since it took effect, the UN rights office said.

Palestine Action itself has condemned its outlawing — which makes it a criminal offense to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison — as an attack on free speech.

The UN high commissioner for human rights agreed.

The ban, Turk said, “limits the rights of many people involved with and supportive of Palestine Action who have not themselves engaged in any underlying criminal activity but rather exercised their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.”

“As such, it appears to constitute an impermissible restriction on those rights that is at odds with the UK’s obligations under international human rights law.”

The rights chief warned that the government’s decision “also conflates protected expression and other conduct with acts of terrorism and so could readily lead to further chilling effect on the lawful exercise of these rights by many people.”

“I urge the UK government to rescind its decision to proscribe Palestine Action and to halt investigations and further proceedings against protesters who have been arrested on the basis of this proscription,” he said.

“I also call on the UK government to review and revise its counter-terrorism legislation, including its definition of terrorist acts, to bring it fully in line with international human rights norms and standards.”

FLORIDA: Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, finished 1 1/2 days of interviews with Justice Department officials on Friday, answering questions “about 100 different people,” her attorney said.

“She answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability,” David Oscar Markus told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, where Maxwell met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question, so we’re very proud of her,” Markus said.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is housed at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee. She was sentenced three years ago after being convicted of helping Epstein, a wealthy, well-connected financier, sexually abuse underage girls.

Officials have said Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell’s links to famous people, such as royals, presidents and billionaires, including Donald Trump.

In a social media post this week, Blanche said Maxwell would be interviewed because of President Trump’s directive to gather and release any credible evidence about others who may have committed crimes.

Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago. But he faces ongoing questions about the Epstein case, overshadowing his administration’s achievements. On Friday, reporters pressed the Republican president about pardoning Maxwell, but he deflected, emphasizing his administration’s successes.

Markus said Maxwell “was asked maybe about 100 different people.”

“The deputy attorney general is seeking the truth,” Markus said. “He asked every possible question, and he was doing an amazing job.”

Markus said he didn’t ask for anything for Maxwell in return, though he acknowledged that Trump could pardon her.

“Listen, the president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,” Markus said.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would not release more files related to the Epstein investigation, despite promises that claimed otherwise from Attorney General Pam Bondi. The department also said an Epstein client list does not exist.

Maxwell is appealing her conviction, based on the government’s pledge years ago that any potential Epstein co-conspirators would not be charged, Markus said. Epstein struck a deal with federal prosecutors in 2008 that shifted his case to Florida state court, where he pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.

Epstein in 2019 and Maxwell in 2020 were charged in federal court in New York.