Home / News / Urgent Appeals / NEPAL: Police denies medical treatment to a torture victim

NEPAL: Police denies medical treatment to a torture victim

March 2, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-018-2010



2 March 2010

------------------------------------------------------
NEPAL: Police denies medical treatment to a torture victim

ISSUES: Torture, arbitrary detention, police neglect
------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to share its concern regarding a case of torture inflicted on an 18 year old student by the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPR) of the Hanumandhoka police station in Kathmandu district on January 20, 2010. The victim was kept in detention for 28 days before being released on a 40,000 Rupees bail. Despite orders of the District Court of Kathmandu, the police refused to provide the victim with appropriate medication during the whole length of his detention. This case reminds us that torture continues to be a serious problem in Nepal and should be immediately addressed.

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information the AHRC has received from Advocacy Forum, a local human rights NGO, Shivadhan Rai, an 18-year-old male student, was returning from Pashupati Multiple Campus, Chabahil where he studies, when he came across a friend of his, Shyam Babu Gautam, Secretary of ANNFSU (All Nepal National Free Students Union, politically tied to the Communist Party of Nepal, Unified Marxist-Leninist). The latter handed him some documents and told him to bring them to a certain Bharat Rai who was supposed to call him later. After agreeing by phone to meet up with Bharat Rai in Galfutar, Shivadhan arrived there at around 12.30pm. Nevertheless upon seeing him Bharat Rai reportedly pointed at him saying 'This is the boy, catch him.'

Five policemen in plain clothes consequently arrested him, still in possession of the documents, took him into a dark blue van and brought him to his place of residence. There, they searched his room and that of his elder brother. The policemen allegedly took a computer, a printer, a shaving machine, papers and pads for the election, pamphlets, stamps of an organisation called Mangol National Organisation and some food. They punched him several times. They then accused him of being a robber and brought him to the Hanumandhoka police station, brutalising him by pulling violently his hair during the journey.

Shivadhan was reportedly taken to a room in the Metropolitan Police Crime Division and all the six policemen present in the room, except an Assistant Sub Inspector, started to inflict torture on him. They allegedly made him kneel and beat him on the sole of his feet with a metal ruler for ten minutes, accusing him of having fabricated fake academic certificates. Although Shivadhan asserted that the certificates they found in his apartment were genuine academic certificate belonging to his brother, nephew and niece, the policemen refused to believe him and inflicted torture on him several times.

Details of the torture methods include handcuffing with hands held back; having him stand on his hands against a wall and beating him on the sole of his feet, legs, knees and other parts of his body with a bamboo stick; kicking his back, neck and other body parts with boots; verbally abusing him; hanging him by one leg and beating him with sticks again; and slapping him. Taking him downstairs to keep his records one uniformed policeman beat him with a stick 10 times on the back. He was then locked into a cell.

The Advocacy Forum documented the effects the torture inflicted had on him: 'There is a 2cm long wound in the right toe. There is a big wound on his right sole. The flesh of the left feet too is torn out. There were blue marks of torture on thighs and back but now cured. He is suffering from dizziness and feeling not hungry. He doesn't take food in the evening and does not sleep well. In the morning, he feels more dizziness. There is burning sensation in his soles.'

The District Court of Kathmandu issued an order on February 3, 2010 to provide him with physical and mental checkup within 3 days. Nevertheless, the police only took him to Bir Hospital on February 10. The doctor recommended lab test and examination but the police constantly refused to support his medical treatment. Although, in the aftermath of the torture, his health started to deteriorate, the police constantly refused to provide him with medical support and he had to rely on medicine he brought from home.

On February 15, 2010 his case was filed at the District Court of Kathmandu and on February 16, the Court issued an order to release him on 40, 000 Rupees bail. Shivadhan Rai was eventually released after having spent 28 days in custody.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This case of police torture is not an isolated one and is very revealing of the malfunctioning of the police and legal system in Nepal which often allows this kind of incidents to take place and to go ignored.

In 2006, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other inhuman and degrading treatments, Manfred Nowak, after a fact-finding mission in Nepal concluded that 'torture is conducted there on a systematic basis', with government officials openly admitting that torture 'can help sometimes'. Even if the situation has improved in the country since the signature of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and even if the government has promised that it would fight against torture, the use of torture by police forces is still extensive. The March 2009 report of the OHCHR-Nepal asserts that the office had documented 93 new cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention and concludes that 'Reports of ill-treatment, sometimes amounting to torture are widespread, especially during interrogation.'

The recurrence of torture is due to severe flaws on several levels of the judicial and criminal system.

The first level implicated is the lack of a proper legislative framework acting as a strong deterrent against the use of torture. Despite being a state party to the UN Convention against torture, despite repeated demands from the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the OHCHR-Nepal, despite the 2007 Interim Constitution which formally bans torture, there is still no law specifically criminalizing torture in Nepal. Under the Torture Compensation Act, perpetrators are subject only to 'departmental sanctions' i.e. demotions and suspensions, which are in no case commensurate with the gravity of the act committed. This is a point that should be addressed.

The general unaccountability of the police system also plays a part in this widespread use of torture. Torture victims often find it difficult to file a legal complaint against their tormentors and frequently have to deal with the indifference of the justice institutions. See our urgent appeal AHRC-UAC-086-2009 in which two men were publicly tortured by the police and in which the court while ordering medical treatment for the victims did not order any investigation into the causes of their injuries. Moreover if they manage to file a case, torture victims recurrently have to face threat and intimidation from the police. (See our previous urgent appeals: AHRC-UAU-056-2008 and AHRC-UAC-195-2008 ). Seeing their case investigated by an independent and impartial body, not submitted to pressures from the suspects seem to be another inaccessible threshold for the victims. (See AHRC-UAU-028-2008 and AHRC-UAU-010-2008: two cases in which police officers in charge of investigating into cases of torture belonged to the same police station as the accused.)

All of this result in the continuing impunity of the policemen accused of torture.

The problem of torture also needs to be addressed on the level of general police practices and mindset which usually focus more on extracting a confession from the accused rather than indulging into a broader investigation. The widespread idea that torture can be useful to solve a case must be seriously tackled and clear messages must be sent from the police command and the government that these practices are in no case acceptable.

The widespread use of torture in Nepal is the offspring of the combination of strong vacuum in the legislative system and of a decaying criminal and judicial system.  

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the concerned authorities requesting a thorough investigation into the allegations of torture inflicted to Shivadhan Rai. Please ask for the punishment of the perpetrators and adequate compensation for the victim. You can join us as well in expressing concerns regarding the flaws in the judicial and police systems which allow a widespread use of torture.

Please be informed that the AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights-Nepal Representative, calling for intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

NEPAL: Police deny medical treatment to a torture victim

Name of victim: Shivadhan Rai, 18, permanent resident of Devisthan VDC, Khotang district and currently living in Ward No. 8, Narayansthan, Mahankal, Kathmandu
Name of alleged perpetrators:
Six unidentified policemen from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division of the MPR Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu.  
Date of incident: 20 January 2010.
Place of incident: Metropolitan Police Crime Division of the MPR Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu.  

I wish to share my concern regarding a case of alleged torture inflicted to Shivadhan Rai, an 18 year old student, by policemen belonging to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division of the MPR Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu.

According to the information I have received, Shivadhan Rai was arrested on January 20, 2010 in Galfutar, Shivadhan while he was bringing documents given to him by a friend of his, Shyam Babu Gautam, Secretary of ANNFSU, to a certain Bharat Rai. Upon his arrival in Galfutar, Bharat Rai pointed at him and told unidentified policemen to arrest him. I know that the policemen then brought Shivadhan Rai to his place of residence and searched it. They took a computer, a printer, a shaving machine, papers and pads for the election, pamphlets, stamps of Mangol Nation Organization and some food. They accused him of being a robber and brought him to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division of the Hanumandhoka police station. After arrest he was taken to Bir Hospital for his medical checkup and was given a detention letter on the same day.

I know that, at that point, Shivasdhan had already been brutalized by the policemen who punched him several times and pulled violently his hair on the journey to the police station. Once in the police station, the policemen started to inflict more torture on him to make him confess that he had fabricated fake academic certificates, which he denies.

I am very concerned to hear that details of the torture methods employed included handcuffing his hands on his back, having him stand on his hands against a wall and beating it on his soles, legs, knees and several other parts of his body with a bamboo stick, kicking his back, neck and other body parts with boots, verbally abusing him, hanging him by one leg and beating him with sticks again, eventually making him get up and slapping him. Taking him downstairs to keep his records one uniformed policeman beat him with a stick 10 times on the back. He was then locked into a cell.

I am very worried about the effects the torture had on him, as documented by Advocacy Forum: 'There is a 2cm long wound in the right toe. There is a big wound on his right sole. The flesh of the left feet too is torn out. There were blue marks of torture on thighs and back but now cured. He is suffering from dizziness and feeling not hungry. He doesn't take food in the evening and does not sleep well. In the morning, he feels more dizziness. There is burning sensation in his soles.'

I am aware that although the District Court of Kathmandu issued an order on February 3, 2010 to provide him with physical and mental checkup within 3 days, the police only took him to Bir Hospital on February 10. A doctor recommended lab test and examination but the police constantly refused to support his medical treatment and he had to rely on medicine brought from home.

On February 15, 2010 his case was filed at the District Court of Kathmandu and on February 16, the Court issued an order to release him on Rs. 40, 000/- bail. Shivadhan Rai was eventually released after having spent 28 days in custody.

I am therefore urging you to make sure this case of torture will be promptly and properly investigated by an authority unrelated to the Hanumandhoka police station, in order to guarantee the independence of the inquiry. I am also calling for the suspension from duty and the punishment of the policemen found guilty of having inflicted torture and not having followed the Court order to grant him medical treatment, in a manner commensurate with the gravity of the torture inflicted. I request that the protection and physical integrity of Shivadhan Rai must be guaranteed and that he must be granted adequate compensation.

I am very concerned to hear that this case is not an isolated one and that torture is endemic and systematic in Nepal. The March 2009 report of the OHCHR-Nepal asserts that the office had documented 93 new cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention and that 'Reports of ill-treatment, sometimes amounting to torture are widespread, especially during interrogation.'

Although the article 26 of the 2007 Interim Constitution states that torture or any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment should be punishable by law, there is currently no law in the Nepalese system which criminalize torture in such a way that it can act as a real deterrent. I am therefore urging you to push for the drafting of such a law.

Of course, it can only act as a deterrent if the potential perpetrators know that they cannot escape sanctions in other words if the accountability of the police system is fully guaranteed. I am thus asking for general and concrete measures to make sure suspected cases of human rights violations by policemen should be systematically investigated in an impartial and independent manner. Those found guilty should not only face administrative sanctions but legal punishments as well.

The general mindset of the police system, which considers that torture is a decent and necessary way to carry on an investigation, should be challenged. I am asking you to send clear messages to the police officers around Nepal that this practice is not acceptable and that confessions obtained under torture will never be admissible as evidence in a trial.

Broad and concrete measures must be implemented right now to eradicate the culture of torture among the police system in Nepal. This stars with the proper investigation of contemporary cases of torture, such as Shivadhan Rai's.

I'm looking forward to your immediate intervention in this matter,

Yours faithfully,

----------------
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Ramesh Chand Thakuri
Inspector General of Police
Police Head Quarters, Naxal
Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4415593
Tel: +977 1 4412432 (Secretary to IGP)
E-mail: info@nepalpolice.gov.np, phqigs@nepalpolice.gov.np

2. Dr. Bharat Bahadur Karki
Attorney General
Office of Attorney General
Ramshahpath, Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4262582
Tel: +977 1 4262506
Email: attorney@mos.com.np

3. Mr. Kedar Nath Upadhaya
Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Pulchowk, Lalitpur
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 55 47973
Tel: +977 1 5010015
E-mail: complaints@nhrcnepal.org or nhrc@nhrcnepal.org

4. Mr. Sarbendra Khanal
Superintendent of Police
Police HR Cell
Nepal Police, Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4415593
Tel: +977 1 4411618
E-mail: hrcell@nepalpolice.gov.np

5. Mr. Bhim Rawal,
Home Minister,
Ministry of Home Affairs,
Singha Darbar,
Kathmandu,
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 42 11 232
Tel: +977 1 4211211 / 4211264

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)


Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-018-2010
Countries :
Document Actions
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.