Colonel ‘tortured’ prisoners

A colonel in the Nepalese army tortured a suspected Maoist sympathiser so violently he left him with permanent disabilities, a court heart today (Tues).

Colonel Kumar Lama, 49, is accused of presiding over the beatings and waterboardings of two suspects – Janak Raut and Karam Hussain – at the Gorusinghe barracks in Kapilvastu.

They were both arrested and detained in spring 2005 – towards the end of the civil war between the Nepalese government and Moaist rebels that raged between 1996 and 2006.

Mr Raut, a medical worker, was beaten so brutally during his interrogation he was unable to walk when he was released, the Old Bailey heard.

Lama was not arrested until 2013 when he settled in the UK in St Leonard-on-Sea, east Sussex, with his family.

He is now being tried in this country, as the UK is one of 159 signatories to the UN convention against torture.

Perpetrators must be tried in the country in which they are arrested, according to the principle there must be ‘no safe haven for torturers’.

Lama is technically a serving officer in the Nepalese army, jurors were told, and had been serving as a UN peacekeeper in south Sudan before moving to Britain.

Mr Raut was arrested in summer 2005, during a three-month ‘state of emergency’ declared by the king after an army barracks was attacked for the first time.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said: ‘Sweeping powers were in place at the time to all police and military to detain suspects for preventative measures.’

Mr Raut was detained after his business partner in the clinic he ran was bullied into informing on his friends and family after hours of interrogation.

Upon his arrest, Mr Raut was blindfolded and had his hands tied, before being told that he was ‘going to meet his grandfather’ – a local euphemism meaning he would be killed.

Once at the barracks, he was chained with iron handcuffs and leaded to a wooded area of the grounds.

He heard Lama say: ‘I will give medicine to him’ – a euphemism for torture.

Mr Penny said: ‘The colonel ordered the soldiers to bring an iron rod, a spade and sticks to beat him with.

‘As he lay face down on the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded, soldiers hit him with sticks and kicked him.

‘He was ordered to raise his legs and then the soles of his feet were beaten with sticks and the iron rod, one soldier on each foot.

‘He was beaten with such force that the sticks kept breaking and had to be replaced with new ones. This beating on the feet is called falaka.

‘It is extremely painful because we have many nerve endings in our feet, but it may not leave any or many marks.

‘At one point, Janak Raut was on his back when the soldiers beat his testicles with a stick.’

He was also held upside down while lukewarm water was poured into his nostrils, giving him the feeling of being suffocated.

He then heard Lama order a soldier to bring a spade, and heard the sound of digging and was told he would be buried alive with the body of a dead communist.

Mr Raut eventually confessed in terror to being a Maoist, even though he was not, and was dragged feet first back to the barracks.

He was still beaten daily over the next two weeks, and was only released on the condition he report back to the barracks with an information on Maoist activity in the area.

Before being freed, he was forced to sign a disclaimer saying he had never been tortured, and ‘this disclaimer will annul any claim even if I make one’.

Mr Raut’s feet and legs were had been so badly beaten he was unable to stand, and his planned marriage had to be called off as he was now disabled, jurors heard.

In 2005, a former UN special rapporteur found a culture of torture in the army and police to obtain confessions or extract information.

Professor Manfred Nowak’s report found that beating with fists or sticks and kicking and stamping on victims was common practice.

There is no offence of torture in Nepalese law, Mr Penny said, but Mr Raut successfully claimed compensation under the Torture Compensation Act that was brought in after the war.

He was awarded compensation in excess of 75,000 rupees, although he never actually received any of the cash.

Mr Penny said: ‘That gives you an idea that this is not a recent allegation of torture’.

Lama, of (41) St Peters Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, denies two counts of torture, but admits the two men may have been mistreated on the barracks.

His two alleged victims have flown from Nepal, while professor Novak will also be giving evidence.