Kumar Lama

Colonel Kumar Lama or Kumar Lama was a colonel in the Nepalese Army before being arrested in the UK on charges of torture. He was a military observer in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at St. Leonard’s-on-sea near Hastings over torture he was alleged to have committed during the Nepalese Civil War . He was held at his East Sussex home by Metropolitan Police officers.

Detectives with specialist experience of war crimes arrested the officer under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act, a law that defines torture as a "universal jurisdiction" crime. This means that suspects can face trial before a British court even if their alleged offences had nothing to do with the UK. He is accused of committing crimes during Nepal's civil war, in which more than 16,000 people died. However, Nepal said Britain is breaching its sovereignty by carrying out the arrest. Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the country's foreign minister, said: "The arrest of Lama, who has been serving in the United Nations mission in Sudan, without informing the concerned government and without any evidence, is against the general principle of international law and jurisdiction of a sovereign country.

According to Polly Truscott, the Deputy Asia-Pacific Director of Amnesty International, "“This arrest may prove to be a welcome step towards accountability, but it also really highlights the Nepal government’s failure to provide justice for the thousands of victims of torture, enforced disappearance, unlawful killings and other human rights abuses in the country.”

External Links

• Advocacy Forum, Nepal