UK court acquits Nepal Army Colonel of war crimes

An UK court has acquitted a Nepalese Army Colonel of charges of torture and human rights violation during the country's decade-long bloody Maoist insurgency, Nepalese media reported today.
The Central Criminal Court in Old Bailey, London yesterday acquitted Col Kumar Lama of charges of torture and human rights violation during Nepal's civil war.
The United Kingdom had arrested the senior official of Nepal Army from London during his personal visit on January 3, 2013. The Old Bailey had held the preliminary hearing in the case on January 24 the same year.
The Court 6 of Old Bailey issued the final verdict and closed the case today, Himalayan Times reported.

"It has been learned that the Court 6 gave a clean chit to Col Lama for lack of evidences against him on torture charges," the report said.
"Col Lama has not decided yet whether he would file for compensation," the paper quoted a source as saying.

He faced trial on charges of inflicting severe pains to two detainees during the height of Maoist insurgency in Nepal in 2005. He is the first person to be tried outside Nepal for alleged human rights violation and war crimes in Nepal under the universal jurisdiction.
Col Lama, who was deputed to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, was vacationing with his family in London when he was arrested.

Earlier in August, the jury at the Old Bailey acquitted Col Lama of one of the two counts of torture he faced for the mistreatment of Karam Hussain. The jury, however, had not issued any verdict for the acts of alleged torture committed against Janak Bahadur Raut.
Hussein and Raut were Maoist supporters who were allegedly tortured by the Nepal Army in detention at the Gorusinghe Barracks, where Col Lama was in charge, the report said.