Nepalese officer cleared of ‘pecking parrot’ torture

A colonel in the Nepalese army was today (tues) cleared of torturing a suspected Maoist sympathiser after two trials which cost the British taxpayer more than £1 million. Kumar Lama, 49, was charged under rarely used legislation allowing the prosecution of alleged foreign war criminals. He was accused of mistreating prisoner Janak Raut during his country’s civil war, which raged between 1996 and 2006. The Old Bailey heard he presided over beating his alleged victim while in charge of the…