The State has been ordered to pay over $850,000 in compensation to a 45-year-old Nigerian man, who was shot by police while being evacuated from the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo during a fire in 2015.
High Court Judge Devindra Rampersad assessed the compensation for Kennedy Nna Leckwachi in a written judgement delivered on Wednesday.
According to the evidence in the case, in January 2015, Leckwachi was detained by officers of the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security for allegedly staying in T&T past the deadline he was given upon arrival.
In September 2015, a fire broke out in the dormitory area of the centre and he and other detainees were being evacuated from the facility when he was confronted by a group of police officers, who responded to the scene.
Although Leckwachi reportedly knelt down and pleaded with the officers not to shoot, one of them shot him in the leg before the others joined in and began beating him.
After Leckwachi was discharged from hospital several weeks later, he was charged with escaping lawful custody and assaulting a police officer during the execution of his duties.
He was initially transferred to the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca before being transferred back to the centre.
He made more than 40 court appearances in the Arima Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Indar Jagroo ruled that police had insufficient evidence to sustain the charge in early 2019.
Following the dismissal of the charges, Leckwachi sued the State for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and for the injuries he sustained at the hand of the police when he sought to flee from the fire.
The following month, Leckwachi was deported after being refused an injunction pending the determination of his lawsuit.
While the Office of the Attorney General filed a defence in the case, it failed to bring any witnesses to challenge Leckwachi’s claims.
Dealing with Leckwachi’s false imprisonment claim, in which his attorneys alleged that at the time of the fire he was being detained under a faulty deportation order, Justice Rampersad noted that in the absence of cogent and reliable evidence from the State on the issue, it (the detention) was unlawful.
Justice Rampersad also upheld his malicious prosecution case based on what transpired before the magistrate.
“The facts before this court, especially in relation to the no-case submission being upheld and the non-attendance of the complainant, PC Ramdeen, leads the court t the conclusion on a balance of probabilities, that not only was there no reasonable and probable cause but malice has to be inferred,” Justice Rampersad said.
He granted $550,000 in compensation for false imprisonment and $85,000 for malicious prosecution.
In assessing the compensation for Leckwachi’s injuries, Justice Rampersad noted that while Leckwachi claimed that he had a bone fracture in his leg due to the gunshot wound and required surgery, the fracture was only identified by his (Leckwachi) doctor in Nigeria, years after the shooting.
“It is possible that the same may have been caused by the gunshot wound but there is also the possibility that, since it was never mentioned before, the cause was unrelated to that,” Justice Rampersad said as he ordered $80,000 in compensation for his injuries.
Justice Rampersad also ordered $50,000 in exemplary damages for the State’s delay in taking proper steps under the immigration act to detain him.
The State was also ordered to pay $101,000 in legal costs.
Leckwachi was represented by Matthew Gayle and Crystal Paul, while Sanjeev Lalla and Candice Alexander represented the State.