Friday 4 January 2013

Nepalese army colonel charged with torture in Britain


British police on Friday said they were charging a Nepalese army colonel with two counts of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation's civil war, in a move likely to anger the Kathmandu government.
Kumar Lama, 46, will appear in court in London on Saturday accused of "intentionally inflicting severe pain or suffering" on two people at an army barracks in Kapilvastu in 2005, Scotland Yard said.

Lama's arrest on Thursday at his home in St Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings on the south coast of England, sparked a formal protest by the Nepalese government to the British ambassador and a demand to release Lama.

Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha said Friday that British police had arrested Lama, who has been serving in the UN mission in Sudan, without informing the Nepalese government and with no evidence.

Such a move was "against the general principle of international law and jurisdiction of a sovereign country", Shrestha said.
"We have expressed strong objections to this act. Nepal army personnel would be punished according to their own internal committee. And we are committed to punish anyone who has violated human rights," Shrestha told reporters.


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