CCPR/C/112/D/1965/2010
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author was a contractor, businessman and creditor to the Limbe Urban Council,
and the Manager of Mile Six Tourist Beach Resort situated in Limbe in the Fako Division
of the South-Western Province, under the supervisory authority of the Ministry of Tourism.
On 29 August 2002, the author had an appointment with the Government delegate heading
the Limbe Urban Council, Samuel Ebiama Lifanda, to demand the payment of some long
overdue bills totalling 7,946,956 CFA francs, with respect to contracts he had executed
between 1997 and 1998. Even though he presented himself around 9.30 a.m., the author
was only received as the last visitor, when everybody else had left, around 2.30 p.m.
2.2
During the meeting, the Government delegate declared that the author had
“disgraced” him by taking the Mile Six Beach Resort away from him. Thereafter, the
delegate called three council officers into the office, who, seemingly under previous
instructions, started to severely beat the author. The author managed to escape but was
intercepted by other council officers before he could leave the building and severe blows
were administered to his eyes and face, which immobilized him and caused severe
bleeding. While he was lying on the floor, some of the council police officers held his
throat and mouth almost to the point of suffocation to prevent him from shouting. At the
same time, the Government delegate and other council officers administered him kicks,
punches and blows over his body. The author managed to leave the Limbe Urban Council
building and was helped by unknown persons to the public security office, and thereafter to
the hospital. During the assault, the author’s cell phone, his purse containing the amount of
113,000 CFAF and his jacket were taken away. The author was taken to the police station
by passers-by. The Government delegate refused to accompany him. However, about an
hour later, as the author was about to go to hospital, the Government delegate who
assaulted him appeared holding an empty petrol canister and claimed that the author had
tried to set fire to his office. The inspection of the Government delegate’s office revealed
no trace of petrol. The author was hospitalized at the Limbe Regional Hospital.
2.3
During the author’s stay at the hospital, he received threats by the Government
delegate that he would be killed if he left the premises. The medical doctor who treated the
author retracted his medical certificate, as a result of pressure from the administration and
Government delegate to do so.1
2.4
On 25 October 2002, the author was assaulted anew by the head of the Limbe Urban
Council municipal police and five other individuals. He claims that he was then arrested
and detained within the hospital premises, where he had stopped to buy medication. The
author annexes an affidavit signed by a court bailiff, which indicates that the author was
arrested and detained within the Manyemen Annex to the Limbe Hospital by the head of the
Limbe Urban Council municipal police holding a detention order signed by the Senior
Divisional Officer for Fako. The author was taken to the gendarmerie post and released 20
minutes later. On the same day, only 30 minutes after his release, the author was arrested
again by an officer of the Limbe gendarmerie post, holding an arrest warrant dated 30
August 2002, signed by the Fako Divisional Officer, ordering his arrest and detention for a
1
The author annexes a statement signed by the medical doctor who treated him on 29 August 2002
(dated 22 October 2002), in which the latter notes that he issued a medical certificate, which he later
withdrew “since the actual part of the body that was gravely affected was the eye”, whereas he was a
surgeon. The certificate refers to multiple trauma of the entire body (contusio cerebri, soft tissue
trauma of the thoracic cage, multiple bruises, generalized myositis; and post-traumatic blind left eye).
He attaches four additional medical certificates describing his medical condition, in particular his left
eye (“prognosis for the left eye is very poor”).
3