Police have arrested a man living in St Leonards-on-Sea on suspicion of committing acts of torture during the civil war that divided Nepal between 1996 and 2006.
Officers from the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism command arrested the 46-year-old man at a house in the East Sussex town shortly after 7am on Thursday morning in relation to allegations of torture committed in the Himalayan country in 2005, a year before the war between Maoist extremists and the government ended.
The man, who has not been named, was taken to a police station in East Sussex where he remains in custody while detectives searched a residential address in the seaside town.
The war in Nepal claimed more than 12,000 lives, according to estimates, as guerillas from the Maoist Communist party of Nepal led by a fighter called Prachanda ("the fierce") clashed with government forces in a bid to overthrow the monarchy. In February 2005, King Gyanendra unilaterally declared a state of emergency and took over all executive powers of the government to establish an absolute monarchy. Thousands of people were arrested in a year-long crackdown by the government amid allegations of human rights abuses, including the use of child soldiers by both sides.
"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."
