Nepalese army officer from Sussex due to appear at Old Bailey (From The Argus)
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Nepalese army officer from Sussex due to appear at Old Bailey
10:13am Thursday 24th January 2013 in News By Anna Roberts, Crime reporter
A Nepalese army officer from Sussex is due to appear at the Old Bailey charged with two counts of torture.
Colonel Kumar Lama, 46, of St Peters Road, St Leoanrds is accused of inflicting severe pain or suffering when he was acting in an official capacity.
The offences are said to have taken place between April 15, 2005 and May 1, 2005, and April 15, 2005 and October 31, 2005, at the Gorusinghe Army Barracks, Kapilvastu, Nepal.
Lama, who has served in the Nepalese Army since 1984, was in charge of the barracks at the time, during the Himalayan nation's decade-long Maoist insurgency.
The charges relate to two men, Janak Bahadur Raut and Karam Hussain, and were brought under Section 134 (sub section 1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
Lama, who has indefinite leave to remain in the UK, had been serving as a UN peacekeeper in South Sudan.
He was due to return to the country after spending Christmas Sussex before his arrest.
Lama, who previously served as a UN peacekeeper in Sierra Leone and twice in Lebanon, will appear via videolink at the preliminary hearing.
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