A Nepalese army officer accused of inflicting severe pain or suffering during his country’s civil war has appeared in court.

Colonel Kumar Lama, 47, of St Peters Road, St Leonards, appeared at the Old Bailey today for alleged crimes commited 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 in Kapilvastu, Nepal.

Lama has pleaded not guilty to two counts of torture.

The defendant, 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.