24 Feb 2015, London - The hearing of Col Kumar Lama , who has been detained by authorities in the UK on charges of extrajudicial detention and torture in Nepal, is scheduled to be held in London based Central Criminal Court at 10 am on Tuesday.
According to a source, a 12-member jury will be hearing the case of Col Lama, who has
been charged for torturing two persons while under detention during the Maoist insurgency period, under the British Domestic Law (Criminal Justice Act 1988 (134).
“Today, the court will administer oath to the jury members and probably hear the statements of the defendant and plaintiff,” said the source. The hearing of the case will continue for some days and will decide on whether Lama is guilty or not.
Meanwhile, London-based Nepali Embassy has said that it is unaware of the development.
Lama was arrested on 3 January 2013 while he was the UK on vacation. He was working as a UN expert in South Sudan at the time.
While on a visit to the UK in early January, the previous year, former secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arjun Bahadur Thapa had said a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime on principle of double jeopardy. Thapa had also talked to the British authorities about the violation of the provision of UN immunity and the CAT treaty stating that the Nepal government wasn’t made aware of lama’s arrest.
According to a source, as Lama’s case is unique in the world, the court verdict will set precedence in such cases. If Lama loses this case, some fear that any Nepali politician and high-level official accused of torture during the conflict can be arrested anywhere in the world.
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