“Shoe bomber” Richard Reid has sued U.S. prison authorities for imposing harsh conditions including isolation and a lack of access to Arabic language religious books.
Reid is serving a life sentence for attempting to use explosives in his shoes to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami three months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Reid, a British citizen, wants a judge to order prison authorities to give him “the same rights and privileges as other inmates held in this prison.”
Reid has been at the Administrative Maximum Facility in Colorado, popularly known as Supermax, since February 2003.
In May, a federal prison official told Reid U.S. authorities had ordered special administrative measures to restrict Reid’s access to mail, media, telephone and visitors.
“These measures have been imposed because there is a substantial risk that your communications or contacts with persons could result in death or serious bodily injury,” the official wrote.
In the handwritten suit, filed in U.S. district court in Denver on Wednesday, Reid said he has a window he cannot see out of and is denied access to broadcast and print news.
