Maude Versini, former wife of Mexico governor appeals for international help in custody case Frenchwoman Maude Versini won custody of her three children when she divorced Mexican Arturo Montiel, a former state governor, in 2007 But in 2011 the children never returned to France after visiting their father Versini says she's been denied access to her three children for two years She claims her husband has manipulated the Mexican judiciary Desperate to see her children, she will today present her case to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, in Washington A Frenchwoman denied access to her three children by her Mexican former husband, whom she won child custody over, has taken her case to an international panel in Washington. Maude Versini will today ask the Inter-American Human Rights Commission for help to see her children whom she has not seen for two years. 'I am here to ask... for justice, and for it to force Mexico to take steps so that I am at least allowed access to my children, which so far I have been denied,' Maude Versini told AFP. International help: Maude Versini, ex wife of former Mexican governor Arturo Montiel, has taken her case to seek access to her children to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission Versini was married to Arturo Montiel, a former governor of Mexico state from 1999-2005 and an uncle of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The couple wed in 2002, divorced in France and Mexico in 2007, and have three children aged between eight and nine. She said she won custody, and the kids were sent to see their father while on school vacations. 'Everything went well for four years, and in December 2011 they went on vacation to Mexico as usual,' said Versini. But then on January 1, their father phoned me and said the kids were never coming back to France. Split: Two years ago the three children went to visit their father, Arturo Montiel, in Mexico, but they never returned home to their mother Maude Versini, in France Earlier court rulings sided with the father in Mexico, but the mother maintains that justice has been manipulated by her ex-husband, giving her no hope of winning on appeal there. 'I think justice in Mexico state is clearly manipulated by my ex-husband,' Versini alleged. She said that she would ask the international commission to help with her rights and those of her children. 'It has been almost two years that I have had no contact with them,' Versini said, adding of her ex-husband: 'He is trying to make me pay for having left him ... but he is inflicting emotional damage on the children.' Montiel was a presidential hopeful at one point but backed off amid allegations of illicit enrichment and an investigation.