V. Communication Ho. 405/1990. M.R. v. Jamaica (decision of 28 July 1992. adopted at the forty-fifth session) Submitted by: M.R. (name deleted) Alleged victim; The author State partyt Jamaica Date of communication; 23 April 1990 {initial submission) The Human Rights Committee, established under article 28 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Meeting on 28 July 1992, Adopts the following: Decision on admissibility 1. The author of the communication is M.R., a Jamaican citizen serving a 20year prison term at St. Catherine District Prison, Jamaica. Although he does not invoke any of the provisions of the Covenant, it appears from his submissions that he claims to be a victim of violations by Jamaica of articles 6/ 10, 14 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Sights. Facts as submitted by the author 2.1 The author states that, on 18 October 1980, he was taken away from his home by three policemen, in the presence of his relatives. He claims that the police officers forced him to board a jeep in the back of which lay the body of a dead man. Instead of bringing him to the Constant Spring Police Station for interrogation, the officers drove him to Morebrook. The arresting officer, one A.M., allegedly said that too many people lived in the neighbourhood to allow the police to kill him outright, upon which the author cried out for help. Subsequently the policemen drove him to an empty lot on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston, where they shot him at point blank range; he states that he only survived because he simulated death. He was then taken to a hospital in Kingston, where three bullets were removed from his abdomen. 2.2 The author complains that so as to cover their activities, the policemen charged him with rape and participation in an armed robbery. He claims that, while still in the hospital, he was confronted with the alleged rape victim, whose testimony was in total contradiction with the police's own version of what had happened. In this context, he submits that A.M.'s evidence during the trial was that, on Saturday/ 18 October 1980, at about 8 a.m., he received a phone call that a robbery was taking place. Upon arrival at the locus in gup, he saw two men and the author, whom he knew. An exchange of gunfire took place during which one of the robbers was hit and fell to the ground; the author ran away and jumped in a gully. The complainant, however, testified that the assailants had worn masks, and that after they had left she went next door to call the police. She did not mention that any shooting had taken place between the robbers and the police, nor that one of the assailants had been killed on the spot. -416-