A Delaware Correctional Center inmate Thursday sued eight prison officials and the Department of Correction, alleging mistreatment that included being beaten unconscious by prison staff. Saad M. Soliman, 26, claims he woke up, almost six hours after being kicked in the ribs and hit in the head with a phone book, in a solitary confinement space known as "the hole." He was nearly naked with only a vinyl mat for comfort on the concrete floor, and 15 vents were blowing cold air on him. The temperature was between 50 and 60 degrees during his 22-day stay there, which began in May, according to the lawsuit. "It's ridiculous," correction spokeswoman Beth Welch said in response to the lawsuit. She said department officials look forward to presenting their side of the case in court. Soliman filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against prison Commissioner Stan Taylor and seven others, including Joseph B. Richardson, an internal affairs investigator at the Smyrna prison and Ronald Hosterman, a treatment administrator. The lawsuit accuses Richardson of beating Soliman, who is Muslim, and directing racial epithets at him. It accuses Hosterman of recommending other counselors not write letters of reference for Soliman, and saying that if Soliman were released he would "become an al Qaida terrorist," according to the lawsuit. [more
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