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Prisoner Says Abuse of His Islamic Books Preceded Beating in '01

Long before charges of Koran abuse at Guantánamo Bay were news, Charles Paige, one of the inmates in a lawsuit against New York City over practices in its jails, clashed with guards on Rikers Island after, he said, they mishandled his Islamic books.

Mr. Paige, 46, was in the city jail in December 2001 awaiting transfer to state prison on a drug charge. Long a devout Muslim, Mr. Paige had been praying five times a day and going daily to Islamic study classes in the jail.

On Dec. 4, guards ordered a general search in the cellblock. No stranger to incarceration, Mr. Paige knew no talking was permitted during the search. But the officer who came to search his cell, he said, stepped on his prayer rug. "I informed her she was standing on my rug," Mr. Paige, a slight man who weighs less than 130 pounds, recounted in an interview. He said the officer ordered him to be silent.

A ward captain told the officer to step off the rug, Mr. Paige said. She did, but she began rummaging through his things, and he protested again. Other officers took him out of his cell for an hour until the search was over. When he returned, he said, "My cell was tossed."

Two books of the Hadith, which has instructional stories from the life of the prophet Muhammad, were under water in the toilet.

"I felt violated," Mr. Paige said. He marched out of his cell and started banging on the window of the guard booth. Officers used pepper spray on him, he said, then dragged him, handcuffed and gasping from the spray, to a hallway. One officer punched him in the face while another held him from behind, Mr. Paige said.

"I was yelling 'Allah akbar,' which means 'God is great,' because I was thinking I was going to die because of my breathing," Mr. Paige said. X-rays taken later at Bellevue Hospital Center revealed a facial fracture below his right eye.

The correction officers said Mr. Paige had started the melee by punching an officer in the jaw, according to a summary of their accounts. One officer "defended himself by throwing several punches to the body and facial area of the subject." That officer reported a sprained right hand, while another guard had a broken thumb.

Mr. Paige was later convicted in jail of striking an officer and sentenced to 120 days in punitive segregation.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 34 of the National edition with the headline: Prisoner Says Abuse of His Islamic Books Preceded Beating in '01. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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