Scotland Yard detectives investigating alleged acts of torture during the civil war in Nepal have arrested a man in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.
Officers from a specialist Metropolitan police unit targeting alleged war crimes and human rights abuses abroad held the 46-year-old man at a house in the town shortly after 7am.
The alleged acts happened in 2005 towards the end of a decade-long conflict in which Maoist guerrillas clashed with government forces in an attempt to overthrow the Nepalese monarchy.
The arrested man, who has not been named, is understood to have been a member of the Nepalese government's security forces at a time when King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency. The United Nations has estimated that the 1996-2006 conflict left 13,000 people dead, with another 1,300 missing. The case is seen as potentially significant by campaigners for post-conflict justice in the Himalayan state because, despite well-documented atrocities on both sides, there have so far been no prosecutions in Nepal.
In October, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, complained that "up to 9,000 serious violations of international human-rights law or international humanitarian law may have been committed during the decade-long conflict ... However, at the time of writing, no one in Nepal has been prosecuted in a civilian court for a serious conflict-related crime."
Advocacy Forum, a Kathmandu human-rights group, initiated a complaint to UK police on behalf of a Nepali alleged victim. Daniel Machover, the victim's UK lawyer, said his client had provided evidence against the arrested man to Scotland Yard detectives.
"Officers from the Metropolitan police service have today arrested a man in connection with torture allegedly committed during the Nepali civil war," Scotland Yard said in a statement. "The investigation is being led by the counter-terrorism command, who have responsibility for investigating alleged war crimes and human-rights abuses, and relates to allegations of torture committed in Nepal in 2005."
In a statement detailing the operation of the force's specialist six-person unit, a Met spokesman said: "When assessing allegations, officers work to secure corroborating evidence available in this country and abroad to meet the threshold for the CPS to advise a charge to be brought."
Scotland Yard said the man had been taken to a police station in Sussex and was in custody while detectives searched a residential address in the town. Together with neighbouring Hastings, St Leonards has 15 to 20 Nepali households many of which include nurses, according to Tuka Sandwell, chairwoman of the local Siddartha Nepali Society.
Mandira Sharma, founder of Advocacy Forum in Kathmandu, who has been representing the alleged victim, said: This arrest has brought a ray of hope to victims."
Because torture is subject to universal jurisdiction under international treaties, any prosecution would take place through the British courts rather than an accused person being extradited. In 2005, thousands of people were arrested in a crackdown by the Nepal government amid allegations of human rights abuses including the use of child soldiers by both sides. Government soldiers and Maoist fighters clashed in battles, the guerrillas carried out lethal bombings and government security forces burned the homes of suspected Maoists. The Centre for Victims of Torture, the leading Nepali NGO for torture and trauma counselling and rehabilitation, has calculated that more than 30,000 individuals experienced some form of torture, ill-treatment, or trauma during the conflict with both sides responsible.
"It is a source of great satisfaction to know that the UK takes seriously its international obligation to investigate and where appropriate to prosecute alleged crimes of this nature," said Kate Maynard, a lawyer for the alleged victim at the law firm Hickman and Rose.
