London: The Old Bailey has cleared a Nepalese army officer of charges related to torturing of Maoist detainees. Lieutanent Colonel Kumar Lama, 49, faced charges under a rarely used clause of the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, that allows prosecution of alleged foreign war criminals in the UK. Arrested in 2013, Lama was serving as a UN peacekeeper in South Sudan before he was detained.
The trial heard that Lama presided over beatings of his alleged prisoner Janak Raut while in charge of the Gorusinghe barracks in Kapilvastu. It was claimed that one of his unusual means of torture was to allow a soldier's pet parrot to peck at the victims until they bled. The first trial took place in February 2015, however, the jury was later discharged citing lack of sufficiently qualified translators to hear evidence presented by over a dozen of witnesses flown in to the UK. A second jury was discharged last month after failing to agree on a verdict on the remaining torture charge. The Crown Prosecution Service announced it would no longer offer evidence against Lama.
Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said, "The crown has carefully and thoroughly considered the evidence on the remaining count and there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction." Justice Sweeney said, "It is relatively rare for so many witnesses to require interpreters and indeed for so many problems to arise in one case." One of the alleged victims, Raut said he respected the jury's decision but hoped the government of Nepal would consider legal action. A solicitor of the law firm that represented Raut, said, "We have worked very hard on a number of these cases and it is a source of great satisfaction to know that the UK takes serious its international obligation to investigate and where appropriate to prosecute alleged crimes of this nature."
