27 Feb 2013

Tahiti court orders France to compensate inmate

1:29 pm on 27 February 2013

French Polynesia's administrative court has ordered the French state to pay compensation to a former inmate for being jailed in inhuman conditions.

The Nouvelles de Tahiti reports that this is the first such ruling of its kind over conditions at Tahiti's Nuutania jail and is now likely to be followed by more compensation demands.

The court has ordered that Jacques Caumet be paid 2,600 US dollars plus interest for the two years he was imprisoned.

Mr Caumet had demanded to be paid 80,000 US dollars for being held in unworthy and degrading circumstances.

Tahiti's Nuutania jail is among the most overcrowded prisons run by France but in 2011 Paris agreed to build a new prison for the territory.