Terror Suspects Defy Attorney, Request to be Kept in Isolation

One day after defense attorney's claim of cruel and unusual punishment, suspects request to stay in isolation

A day after their lawyers complained that they were being “kept in isolation” at Cook County Jail, two of the three suspects accused in a bomb plot associated with last weekend’s NATO conference have asked not to be put in the jail’s general population, and to instead be incarcerated in the protective custody unit.

The two suspects who made the request, Brent Betterly and Jared Chase, were arrested with fellow self-proclaimed anarchist Brian Church on Wednesday May 16 after police found what they said was Molotov cocktails and instructions for making pipe bombs in their apartment during a raid.

According to prosecutors the three planned on throwing the Molotov cocktails into a police station. They were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and providing material support.

Betterly and Chase made the request to remain in the protective custody unit Wednesday, a full week after their arrest. Church remains under observation at Cermak Hospital.

At a court appearance yesterday, the trio’s lawyers complained that they were being kept in isolation, saying that they were suffering from "sensory deprivation." They added that not putting the trio in with the jail’s general population constituted cruel and unusual punishment. The trio was, in fact, under observation in the jail’s hospital unit, and they were due to be transferred to the general population.

The request made by Betterly and Chase negates that transfer.

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