Marine
01-29-2003, 8:09pm
Jamaica has reached an out-of-court settlement with a man jailed for 29 years without trial for allegedly breaking a window, a human rights lawyer says.
Ivan Nettleford, 77, released last year from the Saint Catherine District prison on the outskirts of the capital, was lost in the prison system after being charged with malicious destruction of property in 1972.
The maximum penalty for the crime is three months in prison or a $20 fine.
Nancy Anderson, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the Jamaica Independent Council for Human Rights, said: "The Government has offered us a settlement and we are taking that."
She declined to disclose the amount of the settlement.
Mr Nettleford was freed after the human rights group stepped in following a newspaper story about his plight.
Mr Nettleford was charged with breaking a window at a bank in the central parish of Clarendon.
On his first appearance in court, he was declared unfit to enter a plea due to a mental condition and the judge ordered him kept in custody until his condition improved.
"His human rights were completely ignored and abused by the judicial authorities," Ms Anderson said, adding that Nettleford had now fully recovered from his mental condition.
Upon his release last April, Mr Nettleford complained about years of abuse in prison, saying conditions were "terrible and wicked".
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s771908.htm
Ivan Nettleford, 77, released last year from the Saint Catherine District prison on the outskirts of the capital, was lost in the prison system after being charged with malicious destruction of property in 1972.
The maximum penalty for the crime is three months in prison or a $20 fine.
Nancy Anderson, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the Jamaica Independent Council for Human Rights, said: "The Government has offered us a settlement and we are taking that."
She declined to disclose the amount of the settlement.
Mr Nettleford was freed after the human rights group stepped in following a newspaper story about his plight.
Mr Nettleford was charged with breaking a window at a bank in the central parish of Clarendon.
On his first appearance in court, he was declared unfit to enter a plea due to a mental condition and the judge ordered him kept in custody until his condition improved.
"His human rights were completely ignored and abused by the judicial authorities," Ms Anderson said, adding that Nettleford had now fully recovered from his mental condition.
Upon his release last April, Mr Nettleford complained about years of abuse in prison, saying conditions were "terrible and wicked".
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s771908.htm