Jamaican 'lost prisoner' settlement

Nettleford was "lost" in one of Kingston's jails

A Jamaican man who spent 28 years in jail without trial for allegedly breaking a window has reached an out-of-court settlement with the government, a human rights lawyer said.

He was buried in the system and his human rights abused

Nancy Anderson, IJCHR legal officer

The 77-year-old man as lost in prison system after being charged with malicious destruction of property in 1972.

Alfred Nettleford - also known as Ivan Barrow - was only released from prison last year after the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights (IJCHR) intervened.

IJCHR chairman Lloyd Barnett told BBC News Online that Mr Nettleford will now receive nine million Jamaican dollars ($172,000) in three instalments, subject to court approval.

'Rights abused'

"The government has offered us a settlement and we are taking that," IJCHR legal officer Nancy Anderson was quoted as saying by The Jamaica Observer newspaper.

Mr Nettleford was charged with breaking a window at a bank in Clarendon, and was kept at St Catherine District prison on the outskirts of the capital, Kingston.

On his first appearance in court he was deemed unfit to plea due to his mental condition, and a judge ordered him to remain in custody until he was feeling better.

But Mr Nettleford was never brought back to court, as prison authorities wrongly called him Ivan Barrow and ignored the documents bearing his rightful name, Ms Anderson said.

"Therefore he became lost in the system and spent 29 years there without going to court to be tried," Ms Anderson said.

"He was buried in the system and his human rights abused," she added.

According to Jamaica's laws, the maximum penalty for malicious destruction of property is three months in jail or a $20 fine.