Colonel Kumar lama released

Lama Released, No Further Action in British Courts

Colonel in the Nepalese army, Kumar Lama cleared of torturing a suspected Maoist sympathiser after two trials which cost more than £1 million. The prosecution today announced there would not be a third trial.

Lama denied one charge of torture and the Crown Prosecution Service today offered no evidence against him.

Kumar Lama, 49, was charged under rarely used legislation allowing the prosecution of alleged foreign war criminals.

The Judge, Mr Justice Sweeney assured Lama he would face no further action in the British courts.

Lama was not required to sit in the dock as the judge announced his decision in Court No 6.

He had been told of the decision in advance and showed no trace of emotion as he was told by his translator that his ordeal was over.

Lama walked free to be congratulated by his barrister as he left the court for the last time.

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 Gorusinghe barracks in Kapilvastu.

Lama first stood trial in February 2015 but the jury was discharged following a fiasco with under-qualified Nepalese translators.

About a dozen Nepalese witnesses had been flown to the country and put up in hotels, but were unable to give evidence when it emerged the interpreters were not properly qualified.

It was claimed one of Lama's more unusual torture methods was to allow a soldier's pet parrot to peck at the victims until they bled.

But the charge was dropped when an interpreter failed to accurately translate witnesses' evidence about the incident.

It is thought the first trial cost at least £500,000.

Lama's second trial started in June this year, and all the witnesses had to be flown from Nepal again.

Last month a second jury was discharged after failing to agree on a verdict on the remaining torture charge.

The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, told the jury: 'It is relatively rare for so many witnesses to require interpreters and indeed for so many problems to arise in one case.'

Prosecutor Duncan Penny, QC, said: 'The Crown has carefully and thoroughly considered the evidence on the remaining count and there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.'

Lama, who has served in the Nepalese Army since 1984, was not arrested until 2013 when he settled in the UK in St Leonard-on-Sea, east Sussex, with his family.

The case was brought under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 - allowing prosecution of foreign war criminals in the UK under so-called 'universal jurisdiction'.

The UK is one of 159 signatories to the UN convention against torture and perpetrators must be tried in the country in which they are arrested.