Shoe bomber’s prison restrictions expire June 17

DENVER — Special prison restrictions will be lifted next week for the man who tried to destroy a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001 with explosives hidden in his shoes, a federal prosecutor said.

Convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid is serving a life sentence in Florence, Colo., at the maximum-security facility known as Supermax — the most secure prison in the federal system.

Reid said in a 2007 complaint that restrictions placed on him after he arrived at the prison in 2003 denied him the ability to practice his Muslim faith, to participate in educational and recreational activities and to contact reporters. Federal prisons can impose so-called special administrative measures on inmates to deter the risk of violence or terrorism.

Reid has said he was denied access to religious materials and group prayers at the prison, whose inmates include Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and conspirators in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Reid also said he had limited access to an imam, in violation of his First Amendment rights.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Prose wrote in documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court that the restrictions will expire next Wednesday and won’t be renewed.

Federal authorities have required airline passengers to remove their shoes for inspection since Reid failed to detonate a bomb in his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001.