JFK Terrorism Suspect Seeks Removal From Solitary Cell

The New Yorker accused of trying to blow up a fuel pipeline at John F. Kennedy International Airport is asking a judge to take him out of solitary confinement. In a habeas corpus petition filed Friday, Russell Defreitas, 64, listed a litany of complaints about his jail cell and asked to be put in with the general population at Brooklyn's federal jail, the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Since his arrest in July, Mr. Defreitas has been held in solitary confinement, known as the specialized housing unit.

Mr. Defreitas is currently "locked in a small, brightly lit cell for at least 23 hours each day," his lawyer, Andrew Carter, wrote. The cold temperatures are contributing to Mr. Defreitas' joint pains, he wrote.

"Moreover, the isolation from other inmates has left him anxious and depressed," Mr. Carter wrote.

Last year, Mr. Defreitas wrote to the warden to say that solitary was "unnecessary and detrimental to my health."

Mr. Defreitas, a former cargo worker at JFK, is one of four defendants accused of plotting to blow up a fuel line at the airport. His three codefendants are currently fighting extradition from Trinidad and Tobago.

Defense lawyers in New York have long complained in court of the Bureau of Prison's policy of holding terrorism suspects in solitary.

Federal judges are usually reluctant to tell the bureau how to house a specific prisoner.